Wonderful Wonderful Romance: Of Cats And Witches
by chaos-dark-lord
Summary: Rewritten and complete.- Poor Boris; he broke a rule and now he is stuck in his cat form as pet for a confused mercenary foreigner that wouldn't have a problem dissecting him if it weren't because she is faking to be a witch. Where are they? And how can he change back? More so, what is wrong with her? and... is he going to be a father?
1. Curiosity doomed the cat

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**This is sstill a Follow–up romance route for Boris for the series "Wonderful Wonderful Science" and the M-shot "****Wonderful Wonderful One-shots: BORIS". So it's recommended to read that first, but if not is still udnerstandable.**

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**MESSAGE OF REWRITTING:** I had almost forgotten this story until Slytherson gave me a cool idea after Boris Mature one-shot (the M is in caps for a hardcore reason). What if the foreigner did got pregnant? Once that idea kicked in, I decided to rewrite the first chaps of this story and finished it. Anyways ehre it is and thanks to peekodeemeko12 and sleeping moon for proff reading it.

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_-"Dialogue"_-

**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

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**CHAPTER 1: CURIOSITY DOOMED THE CAT**

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_"Don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?"_ – Joker said, his gloved hand gripping Boris by the neck as the other Joker stood nearby with an amused smirk, both wearing a train conductor's attire and looking quite out of place along the empty defrosting shores of the previously frozen mirror lake in the edge of the country of they weren't the only ones looking out of place here.

"_But satisfaction brought him back. Without curiosity a cat is not a cat."- _Boris Airey, 'The Cheshire Cat' and Wonderland's most famous feline guy, tried to get away but he knew it was futile. Both parts of Joker where present and he had been caught. However, he knew the presence of this Joker couldn't be. The Joker from Diamond should have cease existing years ago when the country was separated from the rest of Wonderland and it's time stopped flowing. It was when Alice had been temporarily thrown to Diamond before going back to Hearts. By all accounts, this Joker shouldn't be here anymore. But where or when was "here" anyways? Boris was not so sure anymore. Not after exploring the remains of Diamond.

"_That is true. But when none should be and yet a cat roams is and is not against the rules. What a curious dilemma this is._"- The other of the Jokers said quite off handedly while tapping his index finger on his chin.

"_I am a cat; therefore I go where I want."- _Boris grinned despite the circumstances although knew it wasn't entirely true due to the rules, but it was part of being a cat and being a cat was his role and what he was; yet, where he wanted to be at the moment was wherever the mercenary foreigner that he wanted to win was.

It hadn't been that long since he had met the second foreigner but it seemed far longer. She was a fun mercenary that had caught his attention long enough to be deemed interesting, and although it wasn't often that felines got so invested in someone, he had gotten very deep into her, quite literally given that at some point they had mated. Those memories made Boris smile, but i soon dropped. That had been before things spiraled into the chaos that ended recently with an epic battle against the Jabberwocky in the country of Diamond.

After such fight, the second foreigner and fearless mercenary "Aria Hadron Scherzi" had been lost through a portal, and Boris had simply gone roaming the country of Diamond connecting the space between doors not caring where they led. He had been very angry and had felt very frustrated. They had won the battle, but not because of the Role Holders actually fighting more or less together towards the goal of defeating a creature that was literal destruction, and which they couldn't even hurt. No, they had won because the mercenary female had pulled out every trick of her resourceful sleeve; from commanding a faction of faceless that had weapons that could actually cause some damage to the Jabberwocky, to bringing in a huge robotic war machine like no one in Wonderland had even imagine, in order to fight on equal ground with the monstrous dragon. But in the end it had been only thanks to Alice and the other foreigner; they teamed up to use the legendary winxy pistol together and end the last one of the lives the draconic darkness called Jabberwocky had stolen; but in the process Aria had been thrown towards a portal and the way had been closed. There was no way to get to her, and that irked the Cheshire Cat more than trying to catch Pierce for lunch.

Yes, they had won. The Jabberwocky was gone; its threat against them ended and the country of Diamond was on the road to recovery. But the price for such a bitter victory had come at a great cost. Not only was Aria lost, but her game of hearts would never end, and that was a hit to his clock. Ever since that time where she had accidentally transformed herself into a kitty girl whose heat he had personally tended to, he had decided he wanted to try and win her game for real even if Alice was still the main player. But now they would always be forced to love a foreigner that was not there, and with time, the feelings would only get worse. Boris had to admit that they probably deserved such, still he wasn't giving up.

Since her disappearance, the Cheshire cat had roamed here and there, entering passages and cutting and connecting spaces trying to find a way to wherever she was, but even if he did find her, he wasn't sure it would change anything. And yet here he was looking out for her like the good kitty he was not.

With a sigh Boris went on and after some time he found himself in a tunnel that led to a big warehouse full of art, probably at the basement of the museum. It was a white and grey ornamented room full of statues, stained glass, paintings and carvings decorated the room under the gothic arched ceiling, but there was something off, and for unknown reasons Boris' fur was on edge as he looked around a place he hadn't ever felt existing. -"_Where is this?_"

To relieve his stress and boredom he examined the paintings. To his utter shock and surprise there was a small old oil painting that seemed to portrait of none other than the person he was looking for and that somehow had called out to him above anything else, and it was obvious why. With her multiple layers and shades of blonde and the long sinuous braid that hanged over her shoulder and came from her nape, Aria's curious olive green eyes looked at the viewer while in her arms she was holding up a pink and purple cat sported a leather collar.

"_Why you smiling 'pet'?" - _Boris huffed at the cat in the painting. It reminded him of himself in his feline form, a form that the rules that normally prevented him from adopting. He revised the painting 3 more times. There was no doubt, the woman in the painting was Aria, but the plaque beneath named her as _'Electric Witch and Familiar'. _

He now paid more attention to the other art objects which all strangely depicted the same person. Yet there was more than art around. A large collection of items was displayed and his attention was immediately drawn towards a sort of black leather collar identical to the one the cat in the painting was wearing. Boris took it, and when he did he felt as if it was reaching out to him, like the painting had done. It was a weird sensation, one of belonging; and that was probably why he took them with him when he decided to leave through the portal door he had come from and that ended up in a long tunnel sided with small lights leading to a dead end where there was a mirror-like door he could cross. At the other side he found himself inside a splendid building of enormous proportions and exquisite architectural designs, but it was cold and invited to reverence increasing the weird 'off' sensation he had been feeling tenfold.

The feline boy had never seen this place nor did he knew anything about it existing, and upon sniffing, his senses were invaded with the essence of a place long death.- _"This place gives me the creeps."_

Lurking cautiously around, he finally ended in front of a big marble box. By some conversations with Alice he understood what this place was. This was a tomb and the whole building was a mausoleum for the box coffin. In Wonderland they had a cemetery to bury the stuff of a person whose clock would be repaired, but they didn't have real tombs because only foreigners were allowed to truly die, and normally when they did, they were returned to their world.

To him this was new, and although everything here gave him the chills instinctually so that he was now hugging the small portrait and collar, he was curious and approached the coffin. It was engraved with the same figure in all the artwork.

"_Enough exploration for now."_

This was too eerie and Boris decided it was enough, so he turned tail and went away. He couldn't open any portal from the doors inside the building except for the last one at the exit. He apparently didn't have permission to be here, and in his gut he felt that this place was not meant to be visited, it was probably against the rules, so the faster he got out of it the better, and thus he crossed the door to the outside and away from the looming and reproving sensation of the place. To his never ending string of today surprises he found himself in the crystal lake's shore in the country of Diamond. It seemed to be under early spring season as its frozen waters were barely melting. However his relief from having gotten away was short lived. Out of nowhere both Jokers had appeared and quickly defeated him, thus getting to his current predicament.

_"You broke a rule kitty, you went to a place that it's not meant to be entered by anyone."_ – Joker took the collar from his hand and looked at it before checking the portrait.

"_But the weird thing is that even the punishment for that is outside of my direct jurisdiction since the place that's always been here just appeared! Tsk"– _The other Joker tightened his grip, clearly annoyed that he could not decide the punishment_.- "Thief, you even dared steal this little relic... "_

With a sick smile, Joker put the collar on Boris' neck and tightened it.-_"If you want this so badly then you have it."_

Boris felt his body shrunk into his kitty form, and before he knew what was happening or before he could escape, Joker chuckled and threw him right into the defrosting lake. Boris didn't hit the melting ice, he felt right through it and kept falling until he lost consciousness.

When he woke up he didn't bother to open his eyes at first. He was still in kitty form and something was holding him, so maybe moving or giving signals of being awake wasn't such a good idea. He concentrated in his senses and when he recognized the familiar smell of ozone and static electricity on metals he did open his eyes to confirm what he already knew.

He was in the arms of the sleeping or unconscious foreigner Aria Hadron Scherzi. They were on the floor in a dark room, the portrait of the witch laying on the floor somewhat far from them; at last he had find her and at least she was definitely alive, and he was so happy about it that he immediately began rubbing his furry head against her starting with her face and neck, and making her scent just right by mixing it with his own. Perhaps it was a rapture of instincts, but it satisfied greatly his male kitty senses.

With a satisfied kitty grin and his tail swaying with interest, Boris finally calmed down. He next tried to say something to wake her up but the collar burned on his neck and only a pitiful meow went out. He tried to speak to her again and the pain was just as bad if not worse. It didn't truly burn him but it definitely felt like it did. He decided to simply meow and no pain came; it only happened when he tried to communicate. That didn't made sense. Because he was the Cheshire cat, he should be able to speak in this form just like the prime ministers could do in their rabbit forms.

Small furry paws began pushing at Aria, but the sleeping woman turned around to lay on her side while clutching the small animal tighter over her generous chest. Boris grinned despite the situation, even if her breasts were covered and concealed by her armored techno suit and the tactic clothes he knew just how big, firm and soft her mounds were. A naughty thought formed in his mind. If he transformed back he would end up being on top and she hugging him. It would be quite a sight when she woke up from the weight over her and then he'd surely would be able to speak. He knew that normally it was more than unlikely for him to be able to change form, but if he spend used all his powers he might be able to shift back, and it was worth it.

The naughty feline shifted around and accommodated himself, then he tried transforming. Nothing happened. He tried again and he noticed the same burning sensation on his neck. He tried taking off the collar but without fingers it was impossible. His claws went out to grip her vest in cold fear as he understood what was happening and what kind of cruel punishment was being applied to him.

He was trapped in his cat form. He was small and defenseless and couldn't even communicate while still in the company of the new star of the game. And she, the only person who could help him right now and the person that he had been searching for was not waking up.

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	2. Misplaced Identity

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**CHAPTER 2: MISPLACED IDENTITY**

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Boris was getting desperate. For who knew how long he had been meowing loudly, head-butting her, pushing and pulling her braid as much as he could, and even nibbling on her ear to only receive a small electric shock from her armor. However, no matter what he did, she had remained sleeping. He was not going to just say it (like he could) but he was scared, and even when he swallowed his pride and decided to go and get help by dragging the portrait in his mouth to give indications, but he hadn't even been able to get away from the place because he didn't have opposable thumbs to open the door.

"_Curses! My one weakness!" - _He meowed and kicked the portrait aside.

He went back to her still form and began hitting his head against hers in frustration. He sighed and decided that he would at least get some compensation, so he gave her a wet kiss on the cheek, and why not? It wasn't as if she was conscious anyways and he was entitled to at least a little true love kiss, even if there was no love around. He climbed on her chest and stood face to face with her, pawing at her smooth skin.

This was a rare sight. She didn't seem peaceful but she didn't seem worried in her sleep either. He couldn't remember if he'd ever seen her in any state of calmness. For a foreigner she was very weird and un-foreigner. Aria had shattered many of their assumptions about an outsider; like how she had always been on alert and distrusting everything and everyone. Not that he blamed her, and he would be very happy of finding her, if it weren't for the current circumstances.

A kitty sigh left this mouth. He pawed her nose a couple times and then he got closer to put his nose against hers. She didn't stir. Well, at least he could get something out of this and if he could, maybe he could try getting more.

_**("You know? Cat or not, I'm still a Role Holder and this is her game. I still want to play and I still want to win. And if I can I will, but for now I want a little kiss"**_)

He pressed his nose over hers, and since he didn't have lips, he gave her another wet kiss, but this time over her soft lips just as some sort of spark lit on various parts of her suit. She suddenly stirred and opened her olive green eyes, and not even a second later, she rolled on the floor, throwing him away with a startled meow, and adopted a crouching attack position with her body. Boris landed on the floor tense and back arched, his claws digging into the ground at the startling and sudden attack.

Her wide eyes glowed with a sparkling green light and her head moved from left to right, quickly scanning the place, barely stopping to look in his direction, before she ignored him to continue her scan. After a few seconds, she relaxed her posture and sat on the floor.

Aria looked dazed and confused, but mostly, she looked extremely wary. She got some sort of tripod from a small bag that had been lying around and set it standing on the floor while she looked at the black screen monitor on her armored suit's forearm. After pressing her fingers against it a good bunch of times, its images changed constantly to show texts and graphics, she let out some curse in a foreign language and then pressed something on the collar of her attire.

"_Activating natural speech recognition and response. Apply log access."_ – She said to no one.

To Boris's surprise, a deep male voice with a bit of an accent came from her suit somewhere near her neck. "_Sound pattern recognized. Natural Speech response and recognition activated. A.I. code name to be used 'Aegis'. User's code name currently defined as 'Aria Hadron Scherzi', recognized. Command 'Access to Log' recognized. "_

"_Current code name: Aria Hadron Scherzi?"-_ The mercenary girl didn't seem to recognize her own name.

"_User's name defined by user as 'Aria Hadron Scherzi ' for the duration of her stay "Wonderland._"- The voice said with no hint of inflexions in its deep tone.

"_Wonderland?"-_ She raised an eyebrow. - "_Inform of current situation. Resume general log from the escape near the abandoned mansion prior known as Liddell Estate._ _Schedule a Brain scan. Current symptoms include temporary amnesia. Status indicates no current physical damage._" – Her voice was even more monotone and mechanical than the one coming out of the suit.

"_Current situation: We are in some sort of basement somewhere in the world called 'Wonderland'; you were unconscious for a while; possible reason for amnesia: Extreme mental and physical strain due to constant combat and extreme mental stress._"-The voice spoke calmly, but it almost sounded worried_–"Recommended course of action: Avoid more mental stress and rest. Colloquial response activated. Ignore the amnesia for now, Aria and focus on the data stored in the notes you took. You resumed briefly this world and your occurrences in logged notes. I'll present them to you._"

The device on her forearm illuminated again, but Aria seemed more surprised at the easy and caring tone of the voice coming from her suit - "_Describe the advancement in your natural speech current capacities. And why are you using 'his' voice?"_

If the voice had a body, it would have probably smirked while shrugging his shoulders. -_"Current capacities are completely compatible to human speech in a natural way. I'm using a simulation of Andrick Jeloudov's voice because his brain was the first complete mapping done and data analyzed, thus, I am more fluent with it."_

"_Aha …" - _Aria started, but the glow on her forearm distracted her from what she was going. She sighed and then began reading the text that had appeared on the screen.

Boris was still very confused and this was very strange. Aria had always been strange, but this was a little beyond it … especially if, as she had said, she didn't remember anything from this world. The Cheshire cat's ears went flat against his head and his tail switched. He couldn't decide if it was good or bad that she didn't remember because it meant she didn't remember her time and fun with him. But in any case, he needed her help.

With a slow and deliberate pace he got near her and meowed. She ignored him and he meowed again, still having no response from the female. So he did what a cat would do when wanting attention. He moved to her lap and slid under her arm to get in her front of her vision. He would have liked to say many things but he couldn't, not without risking that horrible pain when he tried to spoke, so he simply meowed loudly like a common cat and pawed at her chest.

Aria blinked at him and momentarily stopped her reading before grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and lifting him up in the air while with her other hand she examined the roots of his fur –"_A pink cat?... It's not dyed…" – _She proceeded to turn him around to move his tail to see his genitals –"A male pink cat…"

Utterly embarrassed, Boris twisted trying to get his tail between his legs and cover himself, but she didn't let go.

"_And not neutered…"_

Yes, Boris couldn't possibly be more embarrassed.

She then took a look at the collar and read _–"B? Just an initial letter?"-_ Her eyebrows furrowed and then expanded _– "Wait … in my files it mentions a cat I used as test subject … Bunsen?"_

Boris's ears perked; he recognized the name as the one from a kitten he had met at some point; a stray abandoned kitten Aria had adopted and apparently cared for despite her claims of not being able to love or care. Last he knew of the kitten was that the little runt appeared during the fight with the Jabberwocky in Diamond, but he hadn't seen where it had ended or what had happened to it.

"_I adopted a pink cat?"-_ She asked in disbelief to herself –"_Well… it's rare enough I guess… or did I somehow experiment on you?"_

Said pink cat meowed again, trying to tell her who he was, but the pain returned and only a pitiful mew came out.

Her holding on him became more careful-_"Aegis, what kind of experiments did I perform on Bunsen?"_

"_Experiments performed on test subject Bunsen includes: brain pattern was overlapped by the record of Andrick Jeloudov's brain's map, constant infusion of foreign 'mana', engraving of mana receptive inking_ …"

The voice stopped and a light of red shone over Aria's pupils for a second. –"_Incoming foes detected in perimeter. 4 subjects coming from x27-y40-z7, 10 seconds left." - _Before the suit's voice continued she had already dropped the cat on the floor and jumped towards the side of the door to hide.

The door opened and jumping inside appeared exactly 4 faceless men, all armed. Two of them hurt, one very badly.

"_So we finally got rid of him."-_ The first man that entered aimed his gun around the room. - _"She'll be happy to get the damn relic. But a relic that removes clocks? Ha! My ass. "_

"_If she pays that much then she can fantasize whatever she wants about this old piece of crap."_ – One of the hurt one's said. - "More importantly, _I don't think he'll send his lizard for us here. We just need to wait."_

"_But what if he did? We'd be in a shitload of trouble if there ain't a way out of here."- _Another one spoke.- "We left that seal inside the envelope inside his office as a distraction, but…"

"_No need to worry. It ain't his territory" - _The same sure one responded.- "_The seal is an all too obvious red envelope. If anyone opens it they'll be stunned in place. Even role holders."_

Boris saw the girl try to slide away through the door –"_MEOW!" (__**WAIT! Don't leave me here!")**_

The men saw him and then one turned around in time to see the armored person. Not taking any chances, he shot and hit her in the back of the shoulder while the other man who wasn't hurt proceeded to chase after her. However, as soon as he was out of the door, he was hit with an unusually powerful electric baton that shocked him to the core and left him unconscious, and before his body felt to the floor, Aria leaned on him so that he was in front like a human shield. She took the gun from his hand and shot at the shoulder of the one that had shot her.

"S_urrender now if you want to live and want me to spare your pal here._"- She used her digitally distorted tone.

"_Like we'd believe you! We won't let you capture us._"- One of the men said and shot towards her. Two bullets hit the side of her human shield.

"_You're shooting your own pal?!"_ – Aria asked with a little surprise; in her field of vision she saw the pink cat, it had perimeter equipment in her bag as was dragging it towards her. That DID surprise her. –"_I have no interest in you. Drop your weapons and I'll leave you here."_

"_You damn witch. Why should we believe you?"- _The most hurt one had managed to see her face.

Boris had rounded though a few boxes and was just a little away from her.

She smirked at the cat - "_That's right. 'Witch' is my code._" - While kicking the body over her forward, she shot a couple bullets to force them to take cover and used to few precious gained seconds to grab the cat and her bag from the floor and jump across the door with haste, running away though a few underground corridors, strangely already mapped so that in her vision a 3D map was being projected and led her to an exit above ground and into some kind of unused engine room.

Once there, she locked the way to the corridor and found a place to hide.

"_They really had no eyes…_"- She finally said while sliding down a wall to sit down and sighting with her eyes closed. A certain pink cat was soon released from her arms.

"_Meow._" – Boris was worried. She had been shot.

Aria looked down to the kitty that sat over her lap, and softly pet his fuzzy head. – "_You are a smart cat…"_

"_Meow_"- He stood up, putting on paw on her shoulder trying to signal to her back where the bullet had impacted. The pain didn't appear.

"_Huh? You mean my shoulder_?"- As she took her hand to the back of her shoulder, her eyes narrowed at the feline.

"_Meow._"- Boris dared to nod, waiting once again from that horrible pain that didn't come this time either. He realized that he was managing to form some communication, and that gave him a bit of hope.

_"You can understand me?!_"- She grabbed him and held him in the air –"_Nod 2 times then meow!"_

Boris did as told.

"_I have a freaking sentient cat!_"- She huffed and let him rest over her lap. He meowed, and she absentmindedly scratched him behind the ears – "_I think I need a cigar, Bunsen._"

Boris mewed again and hit his head against the armored plaques over her chest while she pet him. He had managed to communicate but only to be confused with her pet cat.

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	3. Settling Up

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**CHAPTER 3: SETTLING UP**

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Weeks had passed since Boris got trapped into his feline form, and since he had been unable to do anything about it, he had instead tried to enjoy the situation as a pet and familiar for the foreigner 'witch'. Currently he was happily taking a kitty nap inside Aria's undies drawer, his favorite place to sleep besides her chest or over her face.

Aria Hadron Scherzi, the foreign mercenary, had gotten her memories all messed up from the last time Boris had seen her, and as soon as they had escaped that cellar she had revised her files and re-learned some stuff about herself and about this world. Through her files she had learned the truth of her status in this world along with all about the game of hearts, and also knew that she had fulfilled her mission back in her own world and that she would die if she went back. It had been a big hit for her but she didn't break down or anything beyond finishing an entire box of cigars and a couple drinks.

With nothing better to do with her life, she had decided that she could simply settle down in this world and take things easy, go on, and avoid role holders at all cost.

Due to all she had faced in this world and all she had learned, Aria had ended up gaining a natural aversion to Role holders. Boris didn't care about that at the moment, because in her eyes he was merely her beloved cat and familiar 'Bunsen', and he didn't mind that. He was a cat after all, and 'being a cat' was his role, which was fortunate because otherwise he'd be dead already for not performing his duties. This was even better, because it meant no competition for her affections whatsoever.

After she decided that, her first step into settling down was to search for a place to stay, and given the territories they had passed through, Boris knew they were still in the country of Diamond. However, Aria kept walking away from the main locations and eventually they went out into the woods and stumbled upon an old but fancy hunting lodge, situated above a stoned arc base crossing like a bridge right over a river.

"_Reminds me of the Château de Chenonceau"_ -The foreigner said regarding the 'petit château' but obviously didn't explain more. What would a cat know anyways?

The building was like a small mansion but upon further inspection it could prove to be a solid, functional and isolated fortress; it was also conveniently abandoned in a way that indicated that it had simply not been occupied, possibly due to how far it was from any territorial town and because the country of Diamond had been recently restored courtesy of Aria herself. Plenty of places were still in lack of inhabitants until the clock master advanced more on his job.

"_I like it. It's the perfect retire home and base of operations." _\- The foreigner smiled and after giving her cat a dose of the 'drink me' potion to have him get to a properly imposing size to guard the place, she returned to town to arrange through proper bribes and specific uses of force the ownership of the property and its surrounds.

From her new home Aria kept doing mercenary jobs disguising her technology and knowledge as magic and herself as a witch, hidden from holders eyes and performing experiments of any kind she deemed useful or interesting. During this time, Boris had been acting like a 'familiar' as much as the foreigners pet, assisting her in her jobs or serving as a test subject for her experiments with the energy she called 'mana', which she usually infused him directly or along potions that she had him consume. Such experiments made his clock tick with warmth and gave him so much energy that he ended up ecstatically happy, running around at random around the house and meowing up a storm while being extra needy to Aria for pets and making his coat grow longer, softer and fluffier but also making his stripes sometimes glow one color at a time.

"_Mana is the love and feelings of a foreigner, or in my case my will and decisions. It's the energy of the condensed possibilities that will never be into tangible effects. The cost of opportunities for a life otherwise spent_" - Aria had explained him the first time she added mana to his clock.

But that wasn't all. There was also the fact that she got him a dog's harness with bags and regularly used on him the 'drink me' and 'eat me' potions to change his size according to her needs… and she was in need of a maid to pick up the dishes from the table or the dirty clothes for the laundry, go pick groceries, grab her a beer from the fridge, or performed any other chores she could think off; like tying a broom to his tail so he could sweep the floors or put a fan on it and have him lay perched over her to fan her while she read, use him as a rodent hunter for their lodge, a bug catcher and even as hunting cat to save money by changing him to leopard size and sending him to the woods to catch their dinner (which wasn't so bad actually considering the option was canned cat food for him which he hated). No one could say she didn't have a useful pet, much less deny that she was a bossy dictator.

The Cheshire cat smiled, it wasn't as if he was all that well behaved either. He liked to meow very loud when she sang, he hid her stuff for fun, ate her notes, scratched all her sleeping clothes, or sat on whatever she was reading to get her attention when he wanted her attention, which he demanded by munching on her hand, jumping over her armor and hanging onto her with his claws. He also loved to crawl over her shoulders like a living fluffy scarf, meowing a lot in general at random, licking her constantly and stealing kisses whenever the chance presented itself; butting his head on her face, rubbing himself all over her… he would perform every single action that could prompt her to give him cuddles, which he generally got even if she complained, scold him or called him names. Overall it had been fun even if frustrating. In any case, it had been special and he felt her affection for him grow with every day.

That was how their relationship had development during the past weeks. Well, maybe relationship was a bit too much of a stretch. He was her cat but she loved him only as such. Oh the irony. He had the love of a foreigner but not as himself or even as a mate, and he could not win the game as he was. Boris mewled a loud sigh. -_**("If only I was my normal self or she was a kitty like that time when we first went all the way and had fun for days due to her heating cycle.")-**_ After that incident he had kind of wanted to change her into a kitty girl permanently. She made a very proper kitty and he could then have her all to himself. He would like that as much as he wanted to change back himself, but for the moment, that would be just fantasizing.

Kneaded his claws on the fabrics inside the undies drawer, Boris buried his head in the clothes. Aria's existence wasn't as simple. Sometimes, especially when she remembered stuff, the witchen mercenary made his size super big merely to use him as a soft, warm plush bed. That was a red flag to initiate cuddling and Boris more than happy compiled, providing a thoughtful licking session for her while she pet him softly. He then encased her in a hug as best as he could. At those moments she seemed very down and depressed. He had no idea what kind of stuff she remembered but she didn't have all that flame and spunk from when she arrived into this world. Each time less and less. She never said anything about it but he noticed her haunted semblance, her tiredness or how her curiosity dropped.

Burying his face deeper in her undies, the feline took a deep sniff and noticed a light scent change in her as he rolled awake when he heard the door open and Aria coming in.

"_Bunsen. _"- She called - "_You better not be in my underwear drawer again." _

He peeked his head out while she changed clothes to a t-shirt. It was barely afternoon time change but it was obvious that she had gotten on a mission earlier on while he stayed home. She looked tired but quite satisfied despite the purple hit marks on her body that indicated her armored suit had sustained some high caliber shots. That always stressed Boris out. Her armor had a sort of existence and intelligence of its own in a mass of controlled darkness and technology. The 'artificial intelligence' was called Aegis and it could reform into anything when Aria or itself deemed. The mercenary witch had explained it in quite technical terms, but to Boris it was no different than magic and to the cat's dismay, it offered her what he couldn't; conversations. At least, it hardly ever appeared unless Aria called it out.

Aria stretched herself around and then laid all sprawled on the bed with her eyes closed and a smile on her lips. _\- "I know your current position is inside my underwear drawer, Bunsen. So come here before I drag you out, kitty."_

Boris removed some lacy dental floss thong from his head and jumped out of the drawer to obey her call. As much as he'd hate to admit it, lately he felt like a tamed cat. Not a housecat obviously but he wasn't a stray like he used to. He had no idea what a witch's familiar was supposed to be but he knew that he was her cat and she was HIS foreigner; and as she pulled him into a hug to give him some nice petting, he didn't regret this. At the moment they needed each other and he was sure he didn't want to let go. After all that had happened how could he? But would she want him too once he found a way to change back? That, Boris wasn't so sure of.

"_Let's rest, Bunsen. We have a mission tomorrow and my estimations show a high percent chance this one might be an actual challenge"-_ The mercenary scratched her cat behind the ears.

"_Meow"_ \- Boris smiled his signature feline smile at the fun that would come.

Her monotone and mechanical voice held no inflections.-_"The mission requires us to infiltrate in a holder's territorial headquarters and recover some item. We need to steal a small package from the train station. The mechanics will be simple. I'll create a diversion while you sneak in the director's office to get it." _

Boris looked at her with wide eyes. Going there meant encountering the resident holders, and out of everywhere it had to be where some of the strongest holders resided.

"_The risk is high, but the reward is worth it. A relic that can get a clock out from afar._" -She smirked and her eyes glowed.- "_You'll be getting an extra dose of mana in preparation."_

Boris nodded and crawled inside her t-shirt to curl over her and lick her tummy. There would be time for the mana later, but now wanted his cuddle time. As long as they were swift they would do alright tomorrow. Right?

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The next day things had gone according to plan. A big explosion outside the station had called out everyone's attention while Boris sneaked into the main office of the train station. The red envelope was easy to spot. It lay plainly over the desk. With a quick leap the feline reached his objective and grabbed the item. He opened it up to check it was indeed what he was supposed to get, but as soon as managed to get it opened, a circle of lit unknown symbols formed under him. He tried to jump away and escape, but his head smacked against an invisible wall around the perimeter of the circle. Boris eyes widened and he began panicking, specially when a voice stopped him and made him turn around and hiss.

"_That isn't yours, kitty cat_" - A teenage version of Nightmare floated down from the ceiling where he had been taking a nap, making Boris jump back but the feline was still unable to escape.

_**("Oh, shit")**_\- Boris gulped and looked at this version Nightmare.- (_**"Great, now I get mind raped or face her wrath ... Yeah, the mind rape sounds better.") **_

"_I wouldn't do that!"_\- Nightmare exclaimed with disgust, but then he blinked and looked again at the feline with curiosity. - _"But I do want to know what's going on." _

Exerting his power, Nightmare forced open Boris's mind and memories, causing the cat to yowl loudly at the mental intrusion. Boris tried to stop it by telling that he was trapped in this form, but the pain for trying to do so doubled on the mental intrusion that was happening and made him howl in pain before slumping to the floor where he panted until Nightmare stopped.

"_The Cheshire cat?_" - The incubus relaxed somewhat.- _"And you are trapped in that form?" _

Boris ears perked as he looked hopefully at Nightmare.

"_Yes, I know how to change you back. But first.._." - The dream demon couldn't complete his phrase. A window broke down and a gas grenade landed inside the office, partially covering the blackened figure of an armored person that hesitated for a fraction of a second between the coughing incubus and the feline on the floor.

A knife hit the person's shoulder, but instead of cutting the flesh and getting stuck, the blade dropped to the floor while the person grabbed the cat and jumped out of the window just as more knives flew the person's way.

"_I'll get you!" _\- Gray Ringmarc, 'the lizard', assassin and the train station's teenage demonic director made his way into the room, but instead of following the armored intruder that had just grabbed a lamp post and then spun on it to get down to floor level, he took the coughing incubus out ot the room.

Aria ran away into the crowded streets, making side tracks, hiding around and ensuring she wasn't being followed. - _"Stupid cat."_ \- She hissed while holding the pink and purple cat cradled in her arms.- "_The mission failed, you damn furball_." - Her growl was low and harsh, but her hug was full of worry.

Boris meowed sadly to her and did his best to look like the saddest cat in the world, and with his bleeding paw caused by one of the knives thrown her way, he quite managed it.

"_You dared to get hurt!?"_ -The foreigner held him in front of her by the armpits to examine the bleeding paw and lost her composure - "_Gray could have cut off your paw entirely, you rag-tagged fur bag!" _

Smiling goofily the cat meowed, making signals for her to kiss his injury better. To his surprise she did, but not only that. She licked the open flesh while letting out a small melody through the speakers situated at the sides of her armor's neck, and focused solely on the wound while making mana flow to him and accelerate his natural regeneration. In matter of a minute the wound was closed and Boris felt stronger and full of energy as much as he felt her worry and her warm care thanks to the mana. However she looked extremely tired and haunted.

"_Mana has many uses._" -She chuckled but ended up coughing as if she was imitating Nightmare. Using mana always drained her.

The Cheshire feline was amazed at this new power she had, or rather a new way he learned she could use power. All this mana powered his world for what he understood of what she'd said previously, and as a foreigner she was a living generator of mana. She couldn't use it herself, but she had learned to apply it to anything else in this world.

"_Let's just rest tonight, Bunsen. Please just let me rest."_ \- She was almost dropping from tiredness. Using mana did took a heavy toll on her and by when they arrived home she dropped herself onto the closest sofa to rest.

Boris pawed at her to try and get her to walk to the bed. After some insistence he managed to make her move to their bedroom and her armor removed itself from her. Aegis voicing a full status report while she dropped on the bed wearing only her dental floss thong and nipple pasties. The feline then pulled up the bed sheets before crawling between her breasts.

She pet him and pulled the covers over themselves.- "_I'm gonna tell you a secret, Busen._" - She very lightly bit the tip of his ear. - "_After whatever happened in the country of Spades, I ended up in the nightmare realm. I don't know how I got there, but I was all alone reviewing her my worst moments from this world and from my world, again and again." -_ She kissed her pet's forehead all too lightly in her tiredness. _\- "I realize most of the bad experiences here in Wonderland are related to role holders."- _Her hug on him tightened as best as she could_ -"Add I don't want to lose my test subject so easily. They already made me lose too much." _

This made him shudder but now he understood more about her. For the moment he didn't want to dwell too much into what she had said, so he focused his attention on her calming scent. As he cuddled in her arms he found himself pondering that no matter what the situation, he had never smell fear in her. Her scent was constant; ozone and electricity, like the air before a storm. But there was a recent change in scent. The change in her scent had become far more defined but he couldn't quite place it yet, but thinking about it, it was hormonal and it meant something.

He decided to leave that thinking to the pillow and enjoy the hug, but in the morning realization hit him harder than a strike from the Jabberwocky. The change in scent was hormonal, and not any kind of hormonal. She was pregnant.

.

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	4. Kitty Speaks

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text

_-"Dialogue"_-

**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

**This is a time skip: ****MWMWMWMWMWWMWMWMWMWMMWMWMW**

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**CHAPTER 4: KITTY SPEAKS**

**.**

Early the next morning and due to the mission failure Aria went out to have a drink friendly with the client, leaving her sleeping feline alone to ponder the secrets of love and life once he woke up.

The cat stretched out and opened his eyes, knowing he was alone for the time being but his and Aria's mixed scent on their bed made him feel like he wasn't so. Looking around to make sure she really wasn't there, he spotted on the floor her discarded clothes and gulped. He needed to be certain.

Cautiously and slowly he approached her clothes to get a sniff of the now undeniable scent. There was no mistake in the scent; she was pregnant.

Sitting down he paused to calm himself. His fur was all perked and fluffy and his ears were straight and sideways. He was stunned that the fierce and uncaring foreigner mercenary was actually pregnant. It was impossible, but it was real; of all the things that could have happened regarding her this was the most improbable one. -_**("Didn't she say she had a bunch of contraceptive safes to prevent it? Then how … and with who?") - **_Of course, he remembered that he might as well be that 'who'.

Boris crouched down on her clothes and let his tail swing in uneasiness as he rolled around. Aria, the one who had unraveled this world, the one who had faced and survived the Jabberwock and the foreigner who barely even knew what emotions were, was pregnant. And there was a chance that he, the Chesire cat, could be the father. When one of her experiments had accidentally gotten her transformed into a kitty cat girl like himself - _**("Out of her own carelessness"**_) - She had gone into heat and he had been more than happy to take care of her and of it. - _**("Not as if we didn't put the effort into making kittens")**_ \- Boris grinned at the hot memory. Much to his personal pleasure they had indeed been very keen on following instincts. - _**("Like she said. For some species the need to breed is as strong as the need to breath").**_

Curling on her clothes he dropped his smile. There really was a possibility that he might be the father and he was definitely NOT prepared for something like that. He was too young to be a father and he didn't want any leashes of that kind. He didn't wanted to be attached or have that kind of responsibility, right?

He dropped his head over his paws and once more took on her alluring scent, a scent that meant a lot to him. His eyes scanned the room and he realized what he already knew. There wasn't a single thing here that didn't mark this place as her place, her den and her home, but all around mixed with her scent was his own, marking things as 'theirs' and not just 'hers' and that seemed ultimately proper. This was their den.

This place had become his home. Not what he'd expected would be like. Initially after the heat and her temporary transformation had ended, they had parted ways but things hadn't been the same for him. For a few days he had been more than satisfied thinking he had won the foreigner until it hit him that he hadn't; all of it had been an extended one-nighter and her absence left him craving and jealous. He had stalked Alice at the start of the game; bad idea. Then he had gone with normal girls again and it hadn't been the same, not even close to it. It was true. After tasting a foreigner once, he was hooked. So he had seeked the mercenary out but she was a ghost in this world. To his dismay he had become a victim of the game of hearts even though it wasn't her game yet. More so for him who had properly 'mated' with her. It wasn't just what his clock felt due to the game, oh no, it was like a drug, real and physical. He hadn't known that back then and he barely understood that mana thing now, but maybe that was the reason why he had roamed so much searching her after things went to hell in the game and she disappeared.

A small faint smile slowly appeared on his feline face and a new meow came out from his throat as he stood up from her clothes. Despite all that happened he had found her, and now he knew a secret she wasn't even aware of. She was going to have kittens. Well, there was chance it was kittens.

The chesire cat let out a wailing mew. Did he want to be a father? Admittedly maybe he wanted to but not now, perhaps when he was older… or he would have thought a few months ago. Flickering his tail he knew it was different now. There was something else and he had tasted what life with someone else was.

A new thought occupied his mind as he began pacing around. Aria definitely didn't want to have kittens. She has stated she didn't want to bear his kid … it had to be his kid, right? He paused, his eyes bursting open as he remained frozen. … Truth be told it might not be his kid. Aria had fun if she wanted to and held no loyalties but to herself and he had been just there at the right time, but so other holders in other moments, although certainly not so much as him. But what if it was indeed his kitten in her? He was stuck in this kitty form and his foreigner was going to have a kid. But what if it really, really wasn't his kid? The real dad to the kid might come by and snatch the foreigner up and he would be left out to dry as a sad cat who lost the foreigner. HIS foreigner.

Boris's clock skipped a tick and cold sweat broke out under his fur.- _("What am I going to do?") - _He needed to change back and tell her ...and he needed to win her game properly, and he needed to see have her go to a doctor to see how far into pregoness she was, and… and he froze up. His back arched as his body tensed while he stared at nothing. -_ ("There's no way I can tell her she's pregnant! If I do there's no telling what she might do"). _

Wonderland knew there were very good reasons why the Cheshire cat feared telling her. She was completely disgusted by the mere thought of_ 'primitive reproduction methods_'. Would she freak out? Considering how violent and crazy she could be she might kill the messenger too. She was a psycho biologically; and uncaring and brutal seasoned mercenary; it could be a very bad idea to tell her just like that.

Among kitty sounds of distress, the pink cat began pacing in circles right on the outsider's clothes, his mind racing with all the likely possibilities; many of which were quite terrible.-**(**_**"She'd do something to the baby or to herself. I wouldn't put it past her to do some horrible experiment either."**_**)**\- He stopped for a second and whinned a loud meowl. -(_**"Uugghhh I quite expected that. She has been pretty clear that she doesn't want or like kids.") -**_That was all the more reason to change back quickly or else … -**(**_**"Or else what? "**_)- Boris crouched down and took several deep breaths to calm himself.

Telling her could be disastrous, but not doing so would be even worse. And in the rare case that she _was_ on board with all this, he could win the game. A tingling sensation settled in his stomach and his furry cheeks touched with a pink brighter than the color of his fur as he began feeling rather nervous but in a warm way at the prospect. -_**("Maybe I could still marry her? Form a family)**_

His tail flickered and he had to put a paw over it to keep it for distracting him. He was admittedly too young and not prepared for becoming a responsible mate, and knowing her it might be impossible. But he had to grab this chance. There was a baby coming up, and if it was his kitten he'd just have to take care of this or if she didn't want to, then maybe he could take care of the kitten if it was his. But more importantly, no matter what he'd respect her decision.

Once that was settled in his mind, his clock warmed up to the thought of a kitten growing in her belly. A kitten meant he had won the foreigner and he had gotten the right to be a daddy. He was feeling proud of his accomplishment already.-_**("Our Kittens would be super badass like their mom and super cool like their daddy."**_)- Heck, if those were indeed his kittens he was a more fit male than everyone else, and all his instincts started making him feel happy and ecstatic at becoming a father cat, it was almost like winning the game of heart, part of that reward actually.

Boris smiled his cheshire smirk and then let out the loudest cheer possible for his small lungs before leaping up into Aria's clean underwear drawer, rolling around in the lacy fabrics and celebrating. She was pregnant and chances were that it was his kid inside of her. He cheekily grinned, hugging some of her underwear close as he bit at it to spread his scent around, his tail flipping constantly to express his newfound complete and utter happiness bursting from his clock.

Time passed while his deep purrs reverberated through the drawer as he rolled around some more, hugging all of her silky underwear, his claws extending and kneading the fabrics nervously when the noise of the door opening made his ear flick. He popped his head out of the drawer with some underwear stuck to his head and quickly leapt on the bed to hiss at the intruder.

A knife was thrown his way but Boris evaded it then hissed again. This was bad. The assailant stood in sight and it was none other than The Lizard.

Gray raised an eyebrow at the piece of underwear on Boris's head. -_"Nice hat, cat. Now come here, Nightmare wants to see you."_

Boris meowed, but whatever he said was impossible to understand for the assassin, and after some more growls and hisses Gray merely entered into a little tag game to grab the cat and tossed him in a sack before taking him to the train station, where not so long after, the sack was emptied on top of Nightmare's desk and Boris found himself under the incubus's scrutiny.

"_Yes, I'm not the Nightmare you know, I haven't made that many mistakes."_ -The teenage demon huffed and crossed his arms. -_"Now let me see what's going on."_

_**("Go ahead."**_) - Boris relaxed and let Nightmare read his mind starting from when he had met the odd foreigner at first back in the country of Clover.

"_A foreigner mercenary? That's curious_." - Nightmare's pale face contorted in various expressions as he went onto examining the feline's memory until suddenly he bend forward to grab his handkerchief and tried to stop the red waterfall that was flowing down his nose while the pink and purple feline snickered at the image and more at the specific memory of the brief time Aria had been turned into a kitty girl in heat.

"_What happened?" _\- Gray assisted Nightmare while looking suspiciously at the innocent looking cat that was purring contently.

_**("She makes a very sexy kitty… and you make quite the case for an incubus"**_) -Boris snickered.

After a couple minutes of a vane attempt to regain his composure, Nightmare, still with a big blush, sat in his chair and looked at the feline in the eyes .- "_So you think you're the father?_"

Boris smirked and puffed his small fluffy chest.- _**("You saw it. When a sexy female kitty enters heat and a proper tom cat is there, they go to the bedroom and ...")**_

"_OKAY! You don't need to describe it more than what I saw!"_\- Nightmare looked away while placing his handkerchief over his nose again. Then he let out a sigh.-"_I don't know this girl but I know there's a foreigner roaming Diamond and a game going on. This country was just recently restored to what it was before it started to die out… mostly; but although I sense a foreigner I haven't been able to contact her."_

"_You haven't?" _\- Gray narrowed his eyes.

"_It's like she doesn't dream" _\- Nightmare crossed his arms. - "_In any case, Diamond needs her game."_

_**("Yeah … Good luck with that. ") **_\- Boris moved closer to Nightmare and placed his paws over the teen's arm. -(_**"So, do you know how I can change back Nightmare? You're supposed to be one of the strongest Role Holders around here")**_

Nightmare was the one who smirk next, leaning forward and resting his chin on the back of his hand. - _"Change you back? That depends. How and why did you become like this?"_

Gray picked up the cat and examined him. Even knowing it was actually the Cheshire cat he couldn't help the cuteness of the fluffy feline and thus he would like him to change back so he'd stop liking him.- _"Can't he just change back through his own free will like the rabbits?"_

Nightmare looked at Gray and at Boris with a knowing expression full of self importance. -_"He must of course change back, but the Chesire cat is not allowed to change into a full feline form at will."_

Gray tilted his head and eyed the pink fur ball.- _"He can make entrances in space, so why can't the same thing apply to this situation? Why is he like this in the first place?" _

"_He can change, cut and paste space but he can't change himself. And why is he like this… that is actually a good question" - _The teen raised an eyebrow at the cat.

Boris huffed and let out a small hiss - ("_**Hey, I didn't do anything! Last thing that happened to me before this started was that I found some creepy ass death place that wasn't part of any country or territory.**__") - When _Nightmare blinked in confusion Boris rolled his eyes and let the incubus see that memory.

Nightmare remained quiet for an entire minute afterwards._-"I see…you became like this because you entered some forbidden new territory and got punished for it… but how did you end up here? I can only assume this world tossed you in Diamond for some reason. Or rather you were tossed her way and she is the reason. " _-The incubus let out a loud sigh. _\- "This is just too much work."_

_**("See? Now change me back before she …") - **_Boris couldn't finish his words.

A loud maddened and courageous scream resounded through all the train station's speakers and was followed by series of explosions detonated around the building.

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_"LEEEEERRROOOOYYY JJJJENNNKKINNSSSS!"_

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A few seconds later and while the building was still shaking an employer came in running and knocking on the door.

"_Lord Nightmare…!_!"

Nightmare didn't wait for the employer to enter. He ordered through the door- "_Go get the mechanics ready to fix everything_!"- And while the employee ran away to follow orders, inside the office Nightmare looked at the cat and then at Gray with a condescending smile - "_The witch is here for her cat"_

"_I'll go see check it out_"- Gray got off the couch and out the door.

Boris was about to follow Grey but the door closed on his nose. He was happy that she was here. That proved she cared after all. The feline quickly turned around and jumped over the desk.-** ("**_**Change me already!**_**")**

Nightmare drew back and blew out an incredulous laugh-"_You are afraid she'll kill me before I change you!? How bad can a foreigner be!?"_

Boris deadpanned, gazing at the incubus with a stern poker face and thinking on the memories of some of her recent missions and experiments as a witch and then at what her fight with the Jabberwocky had been.

Nightmare paled. This was definitely not a common foreigner, and he needed to see more of it in the cat's memories.

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As he came to the train platforms Gray let out a smokey exhale before tossing his cigar to the floor and stepping over it. Faceless were running away from sight and a quarter of the interior buildings were but rubble; however the general structure of the station was practically intact as attested by the trapped blackish smoke that was coming from different places filling up the building and creating low clouds where the bombs had detonated.

A whizzing from the speakers all around set him in alert when a distorted unrecognizable voice, all digital and vaguely female spoke in hissing cold anger.

.

"_You've taken a test subject from my private facility. This act is formally acknowledged as requiring a declarative reaction of appropriate proportions."_

.

Gray prepared his knives. From between the smoke he saw a humanoid shadow emerge but he wasn't sure it counted as human. Under a shifting cloak that moved as if there was a hurricane inside the building, he could barely see the slightly curved figure outlay. Shadows danced around at every step she took on the rubble while electric sparks flickered around the fully armored body.

The person was completely covered, but through the goggles she was wearing over a gas mask Gray could see glowing yellow lights. At her side was a bag with some tubes. - _"Quite an impressive display, all for a mere cat._" - Without removing his gaze from the so called witch, the assassin eyed the smoke around suspiciously. There couldn't be a coincidence that she was wearing a gas mask or that the black smoke did not raise.

"_What's the location of that pink ball of fur." _\- From her suit's forearms at the sides, blades protruded while she lit a couple plastic tubes that she tosses in front and around. From the tubes more black smoke began coming out.

"_He's having a talk with Nightmare."_ \- Gray tossed a knife towards one of the tubes before it was lost in the smoke. His knife cut it apart and he could see that the contents were powders of various types and colors that kept igniting, making smoke worse. Quickly he jumped over the roof of the nearest train cart to stay above the smoke level.- "_How did you find out he was there?"_

"_Security cameras._" - She stopped, the glow of her eyes flickered. A few seconds later the lights of the building also flickered while a melody guided by a female voice began sounding through the speakers system. It was a haughty industrial song that started with an eerie female crescendo speaking in an unknown language followed by a fast rhythm with a deep and hard, somewhat guttural voice **(**_**AN: look out for the song 'Zerstoren' by Rammstein. )**_. She dropped the bag with the tubes and then shadow tendrils grabbed them and tossed them around the train lines. - "_How predictable. I'll have to pass through you to get to the incubus._"

"_It'll be fun to see you try." _\- Gray had never seen that shadow ability. -"_What is your role? I haven't faced someone like you"- _ He couldn't believe she was a foreigner.

"_I on the other hand, have already faced another you._"-She twisted her hands and transformed a couple charms into a pair of UZI submachine guns, then she ran into the smoke and got lost into it, her voice coming from various speakers at the same time.- "_Do you know the difference between a mercenary and an assassin, clocking?_"

Gray jumped aside to evade a barrage of gunfire and responded by tossing a knife toward the source, dissipating the dense smoke for a second and seeing she had already run.

Her voice let out a cruel chuckle from somewhere behind him.-_"Collateral damage" _

The assassin tossed various knives in arc to hit various spots in that direction and heard a 'thud' from one of them, but before he could smile the train cart below him collapsed with an explosive burst that forced him to jump into the smoke covering the rails. While he quickly placed his hand over his nose, he barely avoided a faceless that had been hiding inside the train and that now run away but didn't get far, for when the faceless stepped on the rails he was electrocuted. Grey now knew he wasn't dealing with a noob after all. With an agile jump he got onto the roof of a new wagon in time to see trains explode and more bodies smoking from being electrocuted, but the sight didn't distract him from the stealthy fast movement at his right, where he threw another knife and struck the shadow silhouette right in the middle of the chest, but before Gray could smile, the knife merely dropped to the floor. His weapon had not penetrated her her shadow covered armor, and it gave her the chance to get close and aim a strike a hit to his side, which he stopped by raising his leg to parry her arm by the underside, and receiving a mild shock upon contact with her armor.

"_Bombs, smoke and guns? Not very magical for a witch, is it?"- _He pulled out a knife to slice her neck but she stopped the blade with her own forearm weapon; the glow in her eyes red under her goggles as a new electric shock coursed through the contact and made Gray grimace_. -"But I get the 'electric' part"_

"_Technology is magic for those who don't understand it, clockling"- She kept on attacking, and the shadows around her body began transforming into spikes or grabbing swirls whenever he was near enough - "Now give this witch her familiar back"_

Truth be told, under normal circumstances Gray was faster and more agile, but with every hit he connected he received an electric discharge that shocked his nerves and gave her a chance to retaliate. Also her own hits were surprisingly strong and her armor was solid like rock but apparently light enough to allow fast movements.

They danced around to the tune of the melody of the speakers, Gray tried to get away from the electrified tracks and the smoke by jumping above the debris while she tried to shoot barrages at close range, completely immune to the smoke or the electricity around but trying to get him to fall for the dangers she had set in their battleground.

Knowing he was running out of daggers, the lizard jumped back and threw another blade as a distraction, he then rushed ahead and kicked her off the train and into a burning pile of debris. To his surprise, the shadows covered her back to lessen the impact but she still dropped one submachine gun before swirling on and blurring her contours with shadows to difficult Gray's aim, but still held one of his last knives ready. -"_You're willing to die for a cat?" _

"_Life holds no meaning anyways"_\- Before she could rise the remaining Uzi, it was hit by a Gray's dagger.

Before they could continue fighting, the speakers shut up and a loud shout from above interrupted them.

"_STOOOOOPP!_"

Nightmare was floating above the scene carrying the pink and purple feline in one arm while he held a megaphone with the other. -_"The cat is safe! Stop destroying my station!"_

The so called witch, very slowly raised her hands.

_**("SHE SURRENDERED!?")**_ \- Boris mewled with wide eyes.

"_Do you promise to behave? Let's speak in my office. No aggression from any part, ok?"_ \- Nightmare held the cat in front of him but didn't let it drop, he was merely showing that her precious familiar was safe.

Carefully she nodded and lowered her arms, as Nightmare floated towards his office, never turning his back on her, she walked in his direction followed closely by Gray.

Once in the office Nightmare went behind the desk and placed the cat over it.- "_See? He's safe."_

Gray leaned on the door and watched her cautiously. She ignored him, more focused on her cat, whom sat down in front of her at the edge of the desk, letting out a cute meow and purred at his owner.

"_If you release him and don't obstruct our way out, no further retaliation will be taken"_ \- The foreigner said through the speakers situated on the sides of her suit's neck.

"_A-Alright, alright! That's fine, really_."- Nightmare said, nervous.- "_B-but can I ask why you have taken such a liking to the Cheshire cat?_" - The teen asked looking at the woman up and down, uneasy at the fact that he could not read words in her mind.

"_Cheshire cat? This cat is merely my favorite test subject._ " -Though the mask she narrowed her eyes.- "_What I wonder is why did you took an interest in MY pet, Nightmare? However arrogant you are, infiltrating a girl's bedroom to steal a pet must be for a reason. Does it hold relation to the fact that I am a foreigner?"_

Gray raised an eyebrow and eyed her more carefully, still not believing this person could be a foreigner.

"_E-Eh? Foreigner aside, you mean you don't know?" _\- Nightmare said, smiling mischievously before turning to the cat.

Boris's eyes burst open before he turned and tried to flee, desperate not to let Aria find out about him so suddenly before she was prepared for it. He wanted to change back, but NOT in front of her. He could fake being Bunsen, he could approach this slowly, but if she suddenly learned who he was…

Nightmare's fingers snapped together and as a cloud of smoke consumed the feline, the collar on his neck fell to the floor. Everyone watched as the smoke cleared, their eyes glued onto the pink haired role holder frozen in mid stride.

Very slowly Boris's paled face turned around, staring Aria in the face rather awkwardly. -"U-Um … meow~ow~." - He awkwardly said, bringing up his hand and lightly pawing at the air in an attempted cute manner towards the foreigner.

The armored mercenary remained unmoving and silent for some very tense seconds while electricity and shadows crackled around her. As her firsts clenched and her chest moved up and down, her breathing intensified. Slowly, small electric streaks ran at random over her suit and her shadow on the floor flickered in various shapes that seemed to want to come out of the floor and become substantial.

Boris remained silent, awkwardly staring at her before sheepishly laughing, his ears half dropped sideways. - _"So uh … hey. Meow, meow_?" -The Cheshire cat pawed at the air some more but was slowly coming to the conclusion that it was doing nothing.

Still stoned, her eyes glowed on spectrum analysis lenses, then, ignoring the cat boy she turned her head towards the incubus. The tone of her digitalized voice holding no inflexion of any kind as it came from her speakers again. - "_Explain this, Nightmare._"

"_This is Boris Airay, the Role holder known as the Cheshire cat_." - Nightmare pointed out rather hesitantly, not needing to read her mind to sense her murderous intentions and quiet hidden rage that would make a volcano look like a mere camp fire.

Her distorted voice deepened as she placed one hand on her hip. Her heart pounding faster, which she attributed it to the drugs she had taken to get a boost in order to storm into his place, and not to the revelation that her little ball of fluffy mush was a despised role holder. _-"You mean to tell me that 'THE' Cheshire Cat has posed undercover as my pet all this time?"_

"_And sleeping in your underwear drawer apparently" _\- Gray smiled, remembering how he had found the cat and finding this funny.

Aria grinded her teeth and felt as if she was about to get a tachycardia, her muscles tensed and she suddenly felt hot under her suit. The nice pet that had lived with her for the past weeks, the one that had nuzzled, cuddled and even slept on her bed was just a holder taking advantage of her again. Destructive intent boiled in her but her overly rational mind prevented her from tossing out some Zyklon B pellets into the coffee jar on the table to form hydrogen cyanide clouds and kill everyone around. No. Her dominant analyzing capacity instead concluded that this explained the feline's sentience and his capacity to survive so many of the experiments. Regardless, she wanted at the very least to shoot the traitor in the legs and torture him for days on end until nothing of his existence remained. She thought this so hard, that Nightmare understood the intentions if not the words.

"_Ummm..." _\- Nightmare, in a sudden insight or smartness, decided to shut up.

With a flare of her nostril she finally took a look at the cat holder. - _"Boris, huh? My files mention you._"

" … _nya_?" -He said, his last attempt to act cute but realizing his attempt fell flat, he then awkwardly coughed into his hand.- _"u-um, hey, I uh … surprise?_" -He said with a shaky grin, raising his hands up in a surrendering motion.-_"Mmhhh...Thanks for uh, taking care of me and all. Do you want me to change back into a cat?" -_ He offered, picking up the collar form the floor and holding it in front of himself, his clock feeling as if it's cogs would burst.

The goggles on her face did not hide the change to an orange warning glow around her irises when she narrowed her eyes. After a new moment of deadly silence she turned towards the door, barely looking at Nightmare from over her shoulder. - "_Alright, incubus. You can keep the stray. Be sure to give him LOTS of canned cat food. He likes the cheap branches._ "- She knew Bunsen ... or rather 'Boris' hated cat food. - "_Or you can toss him out or shove him in a sack and toss him into a lake. He's your problem now."_

Gray stepped in front of the door even before she was halfway across the room.

"_WHAT?!_" -Boris shouted, shocked.- _"W-w-wait, wait! Why?_!" - He cried, hopping over to her with a flustered expression.

The witch turned in a fast twist and kicked the feline man in the stomach, adding a nice but not lethal electric discharge. She then stood firm in a clear attack stance with one knee slightly flexed and her hands ready to get her forearms blades out. Her voice then hissed.- "_Given your services in the past couple weeks I'll let you live this time. Our affiliation is finished, don't ever bother me again. If you dare to get close I'll finish my experiments on you._"- She then turned around and leave.

"_Not at all?!_" -Boris's eyes widened, feeling his clock aching.-_ "S-So easily?_"- He asked as his ears lowered, staring after her in shock and getting up from the floor. He felt his clock break inside his chest, disheartened that she so easily would shove him away. He couldn't believe it. After all this weeks and she just dumps him? Boris jumped between her and the door to stop her, with a growl and a hiss, his tail high and fur on edge.- _"That's too cruel! You can't just suddenly drop me like that, that's not fair!_" - He hissed.

"_Fair!? Piss off, holder!_" - She spat the last word with intended spite. -"_You want me to start from where you shredded my night gowns so you could sleep between my naked breasts or from the part when you and the other clocklings send me into a suicide mission to get 'the star of the game' safe before you all tried to hunt me down?_" - Aria sneered._ -"Be grateful I'm not melting your skin with acid right now, you unmuzzled knotty-patted fustilarian son of a submariner_! "- She pointed her accusing finger at him.- "_ Dare approach and I'll set my turrets on you"_

Boris's eyes narrowed, growling at her.- "_E-Even after all those weeks of fun?!" _

"_You mean the weeks I've been enduring in mental distress out of corrupted files while trying to remain sane and away from your kind and from the madness? Or the weeks before that when I was surviving in the nightmare realm, or overall the time I survived in Spades? "_ \- Indignated she took a step at the side to bypass him but he once more jumped in front of her_. -"I don't care what you think, what you want or who you impersonated. Now get out of my way, holder."_

"_I won't accept it! How can your opinion of me change after finding out I'm a Role holder?!"_ \- He hissed at her in deep aggravation. -"_What does that even matter? I'm still myself!"_

"_Who cares if you accept it or not. My opinion of holders hasn't changed, what changed is just my knowledge about my friggin cat being one!" _ \- She finally lost her composure.

Suddenly Nightmare's moment of wiseness ended as he addressed the woman. -_"Mhh Aria, was it?… About the damages to the train station…"_.- Nightmare trailed off, having a difficult time wondering when would be the best time to ask but needing to do so before she left; then realized that this might have not been the best time for that.

Aria twisted her face so fast her neck cracked. As Nightmare looked around frankly and Gray did so with curiosity, electric sparks coursed over her body and the lights on the room went on and off at random as her silhouette blurred covered with an inky mist of darkness. - _"Are you going to pay me for restoring this country!? For fighting the Jabberwocky!? For saving Spades from disappearing? For fixing your stupid existences by readjusting the rules of this whole damn stupid world!?"_

Boris stared incredulously at her, feeling his clock racing in frustration. She's done so much, and yet, he wanted more from her. His lips trembled a tad; there was something important he needed to say. He felt almost obligated to at least tell her about her pregnancy; not for her sake, but to see her reaction. She would be furious and probably upset, but she was so already. He was desperate to make her feel something, anything he could give her. He opened his mouth, about to tell her as a grin pulled up his lips, imagining her anger with him. At least that's some kind of emotion besides this spite and resentment. - "_Aria, listen…_"

"_I'm done here."_ \- She interrupted him. Under her mask her vision blurred as her eyes just very slightly watered, but the rage that made her skin burn also made her stand firm. -_ "Just leave me alone. I don't want anything to do with you or your kind_! _You have a role? FINE, GO FUCKING FULFILL IT. You are nothing but another piece of the board. Irrelevant and replaceable, so terribly pathetic that it's not even worth getting a replacement. _"

Boris paused, holding his breath before clenching his teeth and glaring at her. -_**("Fuck this and fuck her too! "**_) -He'd just let her figure it out for herself! He remained silent, clearly having nothing more to say to her.

"_Finally you get it._" - Aria seemed to be about to push him aside but her hand never touched his chest, her palm twitched with repulse upon barely getting near his flesh. - "_You won't be taking advantage of me again. None of you will." _

Boris grabbed her wrist and hissed back at her. -"_I'm not the one who took advantage of you! __If anything, you took advantage of me!" _

Without more words, Aria sidestepped Boris and the cat grabbed her wrist but she grabbed him by the hair to pull him forward while her knee went up to punch him in the stomach. Boris let go and then she punched him on the face, twisting in an arc to kick him again at the side and using the impetus of the kick to toss herself back and away. A mere few seconds later, when Boris was getting up from the floor and hissing ready to leap, she tossed a flash grenade to the floor that made them scream at the blinding hurting light. While she had her blackened protective eye lenses protect her vision and her cochlear implants protect her ears, the holders in the room lost their vision, their ears ringed so hard they lost their balance, and they got a concussion sensation that left them all completely disoriented for seconds that seemed like hours of pain.

When they calmed down and regained their senses, the foreigner was not around anymore, and as the cat reincorporated and stared at the open door, Nighttime went back to his desk.

_"Mmhh… I'll start on the paperwork_" - The incubus mentioned and Gray nodded.

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	5. Captured

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_-"Dialogue"_-

**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

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**CHAPTER 5: CAPTURED**

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Boris's gaze continued to stare at the door long after Aria had left. His clock continued to hurt and his legs trembled, unable to move from where they were rooted.

"_It's been over an hour, cat. Shouldn't you like … move from there?_"- Nightmare delicately pointed out while Gray poured some tea for the incubus and for himself.

"_Yes, we've been having to work around you, so at least move out of the way_" - Gray, just in case, looked at the dropped ears of the feline and poured an extra cup of tea.

5 minutes later, Boris tail finally began to lash. His ears went down and back, and his fur began sticking up. At his sides his arms tensed and his firsts tightened - _"H-How … " -_ Boris started, his face wrinkled with a furious anger that could not be settled through words, - "_HOW COULD SHE-?_!"- He started shouting in anger, turning around with a furious expression. - "_IT'S YOUR FAULT, NIGHTMARE!"_

"_How is it my fault?" -_ Almost dropping his tea, Nightmare was taken aback by the sudden outburst.

Gray quickly stepped in front of the feline and to his surprise, instead of Boris attacking, the feline's eyes burst out with tears as he tightly hugged the assassin's waist while falling to his knees.

"_WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH ARIAAAAAAAAAA-!_" Boris shouted.

Uncomfortable, Gray gently tried to push the cat away before patting Boris's head with a menacing expression on his face, letting him cry while trying not to look at him or at Nightmare who continued calmly through his work and not commenting on it because he clearly read Gray's thoughts of giving him more paperwork if he dared say anything.

"_WHHHHHHYYYYYY!?_" - Boris did not quite understood what had happened. After all these weeks together with her as her faithful familiar and all too loving cat she just tossed him away like nothing. He knew she disliked and distrusted role holders after all that happened to her but he hadn't thought she'd hate them that much or that'd hate him too.

However, Boris was not the only one thinking on this situation and the strange foreigner. Nightmare kept on reading the revolving thoughts of the Cheshire cat and remembered what he had seen in Boris's memories. It wasn't something he could ignore. Not when the plot involved the revival and defeat of the Jabberwock, the restoration of Diamond and it's inhabitants including himself, plus the possible rescuing of the lost country of Spades. Finishing his cup of tea, the young incubus set his cup and the paperwork aside. He didn't like it but there was someone he could ask about this. After getting off his chair he ignored the wailing cat and the huffing Gray, dropping himself on the couch and sighing at the complicated issue. A moment later he got himself into the dream realm calling upon his other future self.

"_Oh, you are still alive, what a surprise. Is everything so much for you that you need to call on someone capable or you just want to admire my presence?"_ -The older version of Nightmare from the country of Clover appeared, sitting over a cloud and letting out a puff of smoke from his pipe while looking dismissively at his younger self.

"_More like asking you in what you failed regarding the latest foreigner"_ \- The younger demon scolded with mutual animosity.

"_Ho, ho, ho_" - Older Nightmare gloated and took another pull of his pipe.- "_You mean Alice? The only failure is your perception. It was a success as she is now permanently residing in Hearts with the Hatter."_

Young Nightmare narrowed his eye. - _"Alice? I'm speaking about Aria, the mercenary."_

"_Has a new foreigner reached Diamond so soon? How weird. I didn't think you or that country had enough power to call on one" -_ The older incubus rose a delicate eyebrow and gave another pull of his pipe while looking at the other him.

"_You don't know?_"- The teen was surprised, and instead of wasting time explaining, he let his older self see the memories he had seen from the Cheshire cat. To his satisfaction, the older demon dropped his pipe and looked completely baffled and stricken before taking up his hand to his head in what looked like sudden dizziness and confusion, which soon made the younger Nightmare become concerned. -"_ This Cheshire cat was originally from the other side of the mirror and your time line, was he not?"_

The older man dedicated his younger self a curious look, then the younger version opened up his mind to show the image of the feline boy and to the foreigner woman as remembered by said cat up to the point where Gray was tasked with bringing in the pink feline. For a few seconds the older demon looked utterly confused, but then his mind twisted and his own memories convoluted in his mind, his pipe disappearing to thin air as his body bent in midair; the shock so great that it reached his younger self.

"_I remember!_" - The older demon held onto his own head for some tense moments while floating sideways; his eye wide and his skin even paler than usual. - "_We...everyone forgot…."_

"_What are you talking about?_" - The young lad crossed his arms and raised his chin at the visage of the usual bully so convoluted, and not waiting for the older self to explain, he invaded the man's thoughts and saw mixed memories of his older self-interactions with the foreigner, some common and some so intimate his nose began to bleed, but then he saw the same final battle against the mass of darkness called the Jabberwock that the cat saw in the courtyard of the castle of Diamond where she was lost to a portal to Spades. -_"You… You forgot all about her!?"- _Before he could search even further, the older demon regained his stance and forced him out of his mind.

The older Nightmare frowned and gritted his teeth. -_"There was an unusually strong storm that reached Clover and Hearts; after it, everyone forgot. The Cheshire cat disappeared before the storm." - _He snapped his fingers and his shika smoke pipe appeared again at his side. He gave it a few pulls as both of himself took a couple minutes in silence to ponder. Finally he spoke- "_I am surprised she is alive."_

"_I am surprised a game like that existed" - _The teenager dropped his shoulders and exhaled while lightly shaking his head. _-"Now I know why I'll start smoking…_"

The older Nightmare smiled wryly sideways -_"Whatever you do, keep that foreign happy or bad stuff happens." -_ He tapped his pipe against his knee thinking._ \- "She has a secret weakness to cute things, animals, and to begging. Maybe that's why she took upon the cat."_

"_Errr… not anymore"- _The younger Nightmare looked sideways with an awkward expression, and before his older self-forced the information out of him, he showed him what transpired in his office when he changed Boris Airey back to his humanoid form.

Nightmare, the older one, face palmed hard and began pouting - "_Nooooo…"_

"_And... that's not all."_\- The younger one joined in the pouting -"_She just might be pregnant"_

"_WHAAAAATTTT!?_"- The older demons eye was as wide as a plate and his mouth was stricken agape in an 'O' shape. In a sudden unusual display of discomposure he grabbed his younger self by the clothes.-_ "Snatch her for yourself if you must!"_

"_Hey, let me go!_" - The teen pushed the older one back.

The older demon stood up high. - "_Diamond can't afford to lose the foreigner now, can it?_"

With a growl the younger incubus went out of the dream world. The Cheshire cat was nowhere in sight.

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In another part of Diamond outside the entrance of a shady looking bar, a tall teen boy with brown hair and red eyes stood with his arms crossed and looking quite pensive.

"_If you're not entering then move aside_"- A cloaked figure stopped by the teen's side with the clear intention of getting into the establishment.

Ace looked at the figure. Below some thick goggles he could see the lower part of the woman's face. -"_That's what I'm deciding."_

"_Just piss of, Ace. You are underage anyways" - _The woman growled.

The teen twisted his lip and narrowed his eyes suspiciously while his hand went to the sword's hilt at his side. - _"How do you know me, ma'am?"_

"_I know another you from the other side of the mirror."- _She stood tall, yet her posture wasn't a combative one. -"_You'll be a fucking psychopath assholish murderer one day. Chances are you already are, or are on the way there._"- Aria took a step forward closing her distance with Ace or rather to the bar's door. - _"Now get out of my way, kid. I need a drink or 10."_

Ace didn't bulge. Instead he smiled quite unpleasantly politely.-_"Aren't you rude ma'am? You don't know 'me'._"

She huffed, her expression remaining stern her words held a but pretty noticeable growl. -_"All role holders are the same."_

"_I don't have a role, ma'am. And you shouldn't go on accusing people of stuff, especially when you aren't even drunk yet._" - Ace remained smiling, his hand now grabbing the pommel of the sword and ready to unsheathe.

"_But you will. Now get lost Ace. Go practice being a mental case."- _She leaned one hand over her hip and made a dismissive move with her other hand._ -"Didn't Julius told you that drinking wasn't healthy?"_

Still smiling, Ace replied.- _"Then why do you want to drunk yourself, ma'am?_"

With all due honesty or rather indifference, she answered.-"_Because I don't care about health. I just need a drink or 50._"

Ace crossed his arms and smirked. - "_That's pathetic, ma'am. Drinking 50 drinks alone makes you look like a desperate old hag."_

She also crossed her arms. -_"So what? You wanna join in the drinking?"_

The brunette shrugged his shoulders.- _"I'm underage, aren't I?"_

"_Who cares? I certainly don't and it's obvious you don't either, you little deceiving board piece."- _At this point it was obvious she just wanted to get in and get wasted. With a huffing growl she removed the ragged brownish cloak from her shoulders and dropped it over Ace. - "_Put that on and cover you baby face, Acy._"

Ace looked at the big cloak and put it on. It was surprisingly fitting and comfortable, not that heavy or hot at all. His eyes then traced the figure, the armor she was wearing was something he had never seen, it looked fluid and he couldn't see any openings. It was more like a suit and it was thick and concealed any indication of gender completely-_"Of course, ma'am. You surely don't want people to think you are a pedophile inviting a young handsome lad into a lowly level bar to get him drunk, do you_?"

"_I would not give a damn, but you might not want to be seen selling yourself at such a young age to a 'desperate hag'. I'm sure Julius would have a thing to say in that respect_"- She countered. Ace opened the door for her and both went in.

'Yellow flag' was a simple and half full place. It was the kind of bar where one went to get drunk but not necessarily to get into a fight or socialize. Just a place to get drunk. Aria chose a table at the corner of the place and once they sat down she moved her goggles to the top of her head and called for the waiter, whom came around to take the order. Before he even asked, Aria placed various big bills on the table. -"_Just bring different strong drinks, please." _

The waiter looked between the cloaked mysterious person and the clearly desperate alcoholic woman, nodded and went to get their drinks.

Resting his elbows on the table and his chin on his entwined hands, the red eyed teen l with a mischievous smile on his lips adorning his face.- _"So you have eyes. Aren't you then one of those psychopathic murderers called holders_?"- He examined her face. There were few females with eyes around and he found although she look older, on close inspection she indeed seemed a bit younger than Julius.

Aria looked at the teen version of the idiotic knave with clear disdain.- "_Get close, kid" _\- Her index finger faced up and motioned for him to get closer as if she was going to share some secret. He leaned forward as she placed her hands on her neck and traced her fingers down, peeling open her suit up to where a bra would be and exposing her chest to the top of a pair of big bouncy breasts.

Ace's eyes widened and a blush appeared as he began pulling back, but she quickly grabbed his head and pressed his ear over her chest. - "_Hey ma'am, I'm not interested in an …"_ \- Ace struggled only a couple seconds, pushing his hands on her boobs and pressing them. They were soft but firm at the same time. He groped them once and was about to do so again but he noticed a sound he had never heard before; it wasn't a 'tick-tock', it was a 'dha,dhum'. A real heart; although it was beating very fast. -_"YOU'RE A FOREIGNER!_?"

The woman let go of Ace so his head would drop on the table.-_"Aria Hadron Scherzi, here known as the 'electric witch', foreigner mercenary and any other title or nickname you want to add. Wanna hear it again to get convinced?_" - She took out a package of cigarettes but it was empty and she carelessly tossed the garbage on the table.

Ace hesitated before pushing himself closer, finding himself lured in by the sound of her heart. She didn't mind and let him approach. His eyes slowly slid shut, feeling comfort against her plush chest while the gentle thumping of her heart pulsed through his ears. He let out a soft breath, holding her closer and burying his face into her warm pillows in order to get closer to the sound of her heart. He wanted to listen to it more. It was certainly unique and interesting.

They didn't notice the sudden murmuring around the bar or the looks focused on them. They however paid attention to waiter that had come back with various bottles and jars, left them on the table and turned around saying he'd be bringing more.

Ungloved hands pushed his face down on the table when Aria grabbed the first bottle, some vodka. Aria shoved her tactical gloves in her suit's compartments and didnt bothered with a glass; she drank straight from the bottle's mouth like nothing and emptied it halfways in one go.

Ace looked confused. -_"Are you really a foreigner? You don't loo…"_

"_Look like the average stereotype of a foreigner? No, I don't and I'm not. So suck it_."- She took another sip. -_"You, however, are or will be the stereotypical design of a holder"_

"_Gezz you are rude, ma'am"_\- Ace grabbed a small bottle for himself, it was absinthe. Giving it a small sip he twitching at the bad taste. -"_How can you drink this stuff?"_

"_I feel not inclined or obliged to be nice to someone who will grow up to be a betraying dog that wants a chew of my foreigner bones and meat."- _ Aria took a few more sips from her chosen bottles and eyed him carefully for a second before turning her gaze at the bottle he was holding.- _"Alcohol is an acquired taste. Take a sip of everything and see which one you like more, then stick to that until you're drunk enough to not notice the taste of the others"_

"_Stop it, miss. I won't end up like that. I'm going to get strong so I can protect the people I care about"- _Ace's smile dropped. He was starting to get tired of her insults. He began taking a sip out of every bottle until he found one that wasn't too terrible -_"You sound bitter and in need of a boyfriend miss, but it looks you'll only end up an hermit." _

Sneering at that, Aria emptied half of another bottle in one go. -"_You think you can escape your future, or your role or the fact that you'll most likely betray any person that gives any damn about you, future holder? You will and they will betray you. You lot have a tendency to do that. I for my part don't need, care or want anyone, Ace. I would have liked to be left alone from the start and not get involved in your stupid game."_

"_Did other Ace play with you, miss?" - _Ace felt the world starting to dizzy out as he imitated her way of drinking half a bottle in one go. He also found himself more interested in this conversation with the magical person who seemed to know the future, plus those big balloons on her chest were right in front of his vision and moved every time she spoke or breath and she was breathing quite fast.

"_In more ways that one."-_ The foreigner passed her hand over her chest while looking up. -"_I'm a foreigner who had the luck to fall here when another game was already going on. Without the game focused on me I could observe and analyze. Trust me, I've got good reason to despise holders and abhor the game of hearts even though I know it's real purpose and importance_."- She then placed her index finger over the brunette's nose. -"_As for you… oh yes, I played with you. I thought I was going back to my world, so I didn't care about having fun. In times of war every hole is a trench and every stick is a sword."_

As things began moving around his vision, Ace blinked and then focused on her finger before biting it. She didn't yell, hit him, push him or reacted in any way, something he found quite funny, but looking at her eyes, he noticed her pupils were big and round and he didn't think it was because of the alcohol. He let go of her finger and then placed the tip of his nose back under her digit.- "_Are you high, madam?" _\- He jokingly asked.

"_Of course I am. How else would I had been able to get tip-top with a he Lizard?_" - Aria rolled her eyes.- "_He is one of the strongest and definitely the most agile. Facing him required some preparation, and even so, if I wanted to move fast enough I required a little chemical boost in my system."_

"_Huh? You fought with the lizard? Why? Was it fun? He never lets me train with him._" -Ace tilted his head without separating his nose from her finger yet managing to grab a slender bottle and sip on its contents.

"_Because I needed to storm into the train station to get back something that wasn't what I thought it was; and to get to that something I needed to get to the incubus, and to get to the incubus I needed to get past the lizard."_\- Aria tapped her finger on his nose and smirked, licking her lips. Her eyes flickered and adopted a bright pink shade as she changed her lenses, then she began twisting and pressing very softly her fingertip over Ace's nose as she channeled mana to the future holder. - _"Live as long as you can, you will strike nothing off the time you will have to spend dead til you are replaced, clocking. Yet, until that moment comes, you'll find out that you'll be lost because if you find someone or something to care about you'll dread the day when it will be gone; afraid to reckon that you will lose all, and afraid to acknowledge that all your struggles are in vain because you can't do anything against this world's game."_

Ace miraculously began feeling himself sober up as he drank along, but his confusion didn't dissipate.- _"You are quite dramatic, aren't you, lady? I'll fight whatever comes my way. Ma'am."_

The foreigner chuckled humorlessly.- "_Fight your role then. It will be futile; all roles consume their holders."_

"_And what about you lady?" - _Ace looked at her and sharply captured her gaze.

_"No expectations = no disappointments. With all inputs cut, there is no pain or joy, just purpose… Except that there is no purpose; not anymore. There is nothing to gain and there nothing to lose. _"-The mercenary woman didn't seem capable of feeling anything. No rage, nor pity, no sadness… nothing, and yet she seemed utterly pitiable - "_It will never end. The Game will just keep forever setting traps for me. It doesn't matter. I'll merely have as many drinks as I can take and see what happens. Either I get an alcohol intoxication or I get a heart attack. It shall be fun to find out."_

Ace leaned on the tingling touch of her finger. In a way it was magical. As magical as hypnotic was the fast rise and fall of her chest.-_"Why?_"

She chuckled again, this time gaining some humor in her all too sardonic smirk. - "_I'm Practically having a tachycardia right now as it is, and I wanted to see how much alcohol it would take for me to get cardiac arrest._"

"_But why?"_

She snarked a laugh and a giggle. -"_An organic heart is susceptible to a bunch of stuff and I thought it'd be funny if I died from something like that. "_

"_Would it?"_

"_Everything is a meaningless joke_. _Although maybe I should have broken into song first or something. But better no requiem or aria for Aria_." -She laughed darkly and took out a small charm of a gun that with a flick of her wrist transformed into a high caliber revolver.- " _But I'm tired of the same joke over and over again. And since nothing is happening yet I might as well just blow my brains off and stop playing around_."

Ace saw her shaky raise the gun and press it against her temple. He had no doubt she was about to pull the trigger, but before she could pull the trigger, a shot from somewhere in the bar hit her weapon and made her drop the gun.

With an immediate angry howl she jumped over the table, her eyes glowing with a red light. - "_Why does this world keep interfering with my death!?"_

The bar suddenly seemed very full and at least half of it was standing up ready with their own weapons drawn. An overly sweet female voice came from somewhere among the crowd.

"_Sorry dear, but we need a foreigner alive."_

With no more invitation the foreigner began shooting while jumping towards the next table to knock it aside and get cover, starting the brawl. Ace took out his sword but didn't join immediately. He was conflicted as if he should aid the mean crazy outsider or not, but when he reflected on the cloak he was wearing and the alcohol she had paid for he decided that this could be a good training, but then a new dilemma struck his mind. Helping her would mean killing her or preventing her from getting killed?

Soon it didn't matter, because he had taken so long deciding that they were already overwhelmed and she was being carried unconscious and away from the bar. Ace was surprised by how 'sober' he was.

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Boris sulked while leaping from rooftop to rooftop. He was still a bit embarrassed at having broke down in front of Gray and Nightmare but he had finally calmed his aching clock down and decided that regardless of her anger and words he would search her and speak to her, calm her out and then try to formalize something… maybe. Yes, she was upset and didn't exactly like role holders but that was what he was and it didn't changed how much they had bonded or how much he cared for her. He even had the cursed collar in his pocket as a reminder. But more than anything, he needed to set things straight, especially regarding that baby she didn't even know was coming.

Luckily for him, her scent was still relatively fresh and he had been able to follow it around and across rooftops without incidents besides him having to remember how to be a bipedal. If he was lucky he would find her soon, although he had no idea how he'd approach her so she wouldn't immediately try to kill him in a horrible way. He was pondering that exactly when he saw Julius Monroe scolding a brat that looked like a younger version of the knave of hearts wearing a somewhat oversized cloak.

"_But, Julius! I'm very sober!"- _Ace claimed despite the big beer the teen was holding in one hand. - _"Besides, she paid for a lot of drinks before they took her away. And it would be insulting for the lady if all the drinks went to waste._"

Boris's ears perked and he jumped down. Both Ace and Julius turned to look at the newcomer.

"_The Cheshire cat?" - _Diamond's version of Julius eyed Boris.

The feline approached the teen and sniffed the cloak. It was definitely Aria's but her scent became blurred. "_Hey ...mhh.. Ace? Did you get that cloak from a woman that seemed a bit angry and perhaps a bit crazy? A woman wearing black armor?"_

"_You're looking for that foreigner?"- _The teen took another drink of the beer before Julius took the jar from him. Still, Ace seemed 'very sober'- _"If you're looking for her too, she was taken away by half the people in the bar a while ago."_ \- Young Ace scratched his head. - _"What a weird foreigner. Although it was funny when she almost shot herself."_

"_Aria!"- Boris jumped forwards towards Ace - "Which way they went?"_

Ace shrugged -_ "No idea."_

Julius pinched the bridge of his nose. - _"What are you two speaking ab.." _

"_Hey, Julius!" _\- Boris interrupted the bluenette. His face was a blush when he asked. - "_Are any new clocks coming around?"_

"_Yes. How did you.. oh._"-Julius looked surprised for a brief second before crossing his arms.

All too worried now and with his handgun ready, Boris ran inside the bar and started shooting. Ace almost went inside to have some field practice, but Julius held the 'sober' teen by the cloak and dragged him away while the cat went on a killing spree trying to get information as to where was his foreigner.

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	6. Where Do Clocks Come From?

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**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

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**CHAPTER 6 - WHERE DO CLOCKS COME FROM?**

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It was an uncertain time later when she woke up with the first thing the Electric Witch noticed was a horrible hangover. Next came the smell; the air smelled like fresh fish. Aria opened her eyes and groaned at the unwelcomed light right above her, but when she tried to move her hand up to cover her face and couldn't, she found out two things. The first one was that her body ached as if she had slammed herself against a concrete wall. The second one, was that she was restrained.

Her vision focused very fast and she realized she was strapped to a wooden table that was inclined around 30 degrees. Aria couldn't see past her voluptuous breasts but she could feel the cold air creeping along her skin. A quick ping signaled her armor had been carelessly tossed on the floor after being removed and replaced by what she was wearing now. _A_ very loose lilac T-shirt with a happy kitty print and a stupid pink lettering slogan of '_I Love Wonderland_' that didn't hide how the cold was affecting her breasts.

"_Morning, morning, dear foreigner!" -_ A woman's sweet and high pitched voice addressed Aria, making said foreigner turn to look towards a somewhat chubby and relatively short heighted woman wearing a horribly tacky dark orange suit.

"_Is it still morning?"- _Aria took the chance to look around.-_ "I wouldn't know given that there are no windows in this place._" - She was in some kind of warehouse the size of a hangar and by the piled ice boxes at the far end where one big door was located, plus with the refrigerated cold she could feel and the fish smell around, she knew that this was a fish warehouse although she had no idea where this place could be but she guessed either in the dodo's or maybe the hatter's domains.

The woman smiled quite broadly**. **_"Oh yes, it's still early. As you can see we haven't gotten the time to clean well yet. You haven't been out for that long, dear, your small nap barely gave us time to bring you here and get started._"- The woman then shook her head. - "_Although to be frank we barely even needed to drug you at all. You were already quite high and drunk yourself. That can't be good in your state, you know."_

"_You could have given me some painkillers. This hangover is quite bad"_ \- Aria tried conversing to earn time and clear her mind as much as for getting information, and hopefully figure out stuff and plan an escape.- "_It would also help if you told me what was going on."_

"_Oh ... I'm really sorry, darling. We didn't think of painkillers and I don't think we have any around." - _The woman placed her hand on her mouth_. - "In any case, I don't think it would be a good idea to give you even more drugs."_

"_What did you give me then?" - _Aria felt groggy and her body ached in a strange way, and she knew something was happening to it beyond the hangover. Her breasts felt sore and her sense of smell and taste were far more acute than normal. She could taste the smell of the frozen fish from the place. She was no stranger to bionic or gen-enhancements and even partial transformations had happened to her here in Wonderland, but his felt slightly different. She didn't know what it was, and thus she need to get the crazy woman to say it before she could attempt an escape. - "_And by the way … why did you brought me here?"_

"_It's actually a bit of a long story_"-The woman tapped her lip as other faceless moved around preparing stuff Aria couldn't see but that she knew was metallic stuff by the jingling sound.

"_Do tell me. It's not as if I'm going anywhere"-_ Aria managed to focus more on what was going around despite she feeling exhausted and a bit nauseous. She couldn't activate her sensors for combat mode because then her eyes would flicker, but her sensors could at least detect more than 20 people in her close proximity and more farther way, all moving around busily except for the woman and a team that observed the tied outsider.

"_I guess we do have some time before you pop ready_" - The woman giggled while patting Aria's stomach.-"_You know, a while ago some men claimed that they've encountered a pretty strong lady with magical glowing eyes in a cellar that was supposed to be sealed really, really tight~! Of course she escaped, but they found a portrait titled. 'The Electric Witch and Familiar'. And the craziest thing of all? In the back of the portrait said that the person was a foreigner! A fucking foreigner. Can you believe that~!? The story doesn't stop there. Not too long afterwards, there was a mercenary witch roaming around Diamond that shared the title. Too much of a coincidence if you ask me." _\- The faceless woman then snapped her fingers and brought a framed portrait out of thin air. -"_It wasn't hard to restore the portrait. Although it doesn't look like there is a cat anymore. That's a real shame. A pink cat would be so cute~!_"

"_So? Let me guess… "-_ The so called 'electric witch' used the chance to flicker her eye lenses and activate her synchronicity even if her suit was not on her._ -"You have something against role holders and want to use me as bait or something of the like"-_ Aria shifted in her restrains, testing out their strength._ \- "If you want revenge on role holders then you can hire me without problem. I'm a mercenary after all and I'm not affiliated with any of them. In fact I probably dislike them even more than you do._"

Sounds and movement seemed to stop for a second around the foreigner before someone coughed. Then the woman leaned over Aria in a scrutinizing way. -_"Oh no, we want our own holder, like my grandfather but more powerful; but we need a newly formed clock for bringing back any of the old abandoned roles and assign it to someone. That's where a foreigner comes in play._**"**

"_That sounds interesting." _\- Aria felt dizzy and nauseous but her curiosity had been picked.- _"How?"_

"_It is interesting, isn't it? I think it's fair you know."_ \- The woman nodded and hugged her sides, squealing in that annoying high pitch.- _"Newly formed clocks happen when a foreigner creates life_." - She then pointed at Aria's belly, which looked more swollen by the moment. -_"Lucky for us, you already have. So we simply gave you a potion to accelerate the process~_"

"_What are you talking about?_"- Aria narrowed her eyes, her brain still not making the necessary connection.

The crazy woman gaped in surprise. -"_Oh dear, you didn't know?!_" - She looked troubled for a moment, biting her nails and looking Aria up and down before focusing on Aria's waist.- "_But I guess this explains why a foreigner would dislike holders_"- Letting out a deep long breath that smelled of cigarette, the woman stopped her happy demeanor for a moment. - "_You are pregnant, dear. When we brought you here we discovered that you were carrying 2 clocks. We have a nice relic that can remove a clock from a distance, and we used it already once, but that early clock does not has enough power for what we want. It can barely assign a role. Maybe even an old one but it won't serve us to modify anything._" - The woman pouted. Then back to her earlier demeanor she clapped her hands happily. - "_But no probs because we gave you a special potion that will fasten the pregnancy to mere hours and we'll get that other clock out of you no pain." _

Aria blinked, then sniggered and chuckled - _"Me? Pregnant!? What a joke!" -_ She finally burst out into whole crackling laughter - "_IMPOSSIBLE. Do you know how many protections I use? Ever heard of condoms or contraceptive chips?"_

"_Oh, denial, I see."_\- The woman nodded and crossed her arms. - "_Who is the father, dear? We'll sent him the used clocks and a nasty letter after we are done with them … if they still exist." _

"_Look, I can't be pregnant." - _Aria still laughed, her smirk quite sardonic._ \- "And I wouldn't know which one of those bastards was responsible anyways. I kinda used most of them". - _ She would have laughed more, but she suddenly felt something in her stomach, a mall hit from the inside, and upon moving her head to try and see over her boobs, without problem she saw her bloated belly. - "_Did you put a tumor in me?"_

The woman placed her hands over Aria's growing belly. -"_Wow, this potion works super-fast in a foreigner. Awe! It kicked!_"- The woman turned around to a nearby table to get a stethoscope that she put it in her ears before placing the rounded part over Aria's belly. With a few nods she waved her hand up.- "_Listen up everyone, this is gonna pop up faster than expected, so let's prepare all __"- The woman rose up and then turned to Aria, placing the stethoscope on the foreigner's ears.__-"Here, dear. Listen"_

"_Oh, c'mo…"_ \- Aria shut up when she listened to the clear tick -tocksound. It was undeniable now. She had no idea how it happened or with who exactly. To say she was shocked would not even be a shadow of how deeply disgusted and completely horrified she was.

Her mind finally focused, but it did so in the culminating denigration of this situation. Of all the things that had ever happened to her, this one was the worst and most humiliating thing that she couldn't tolerate. She wouldn't have minded being mauled, dismembered or killed in any way or form, after all she had worse back in her world or while surviving in the nightmare realm, but this? This she couldn't take, this was something her mind couldn't cope with and it finally collapsed. This was what 'the madness' had been waiting for.

As her mind broke down like shattering glass, the shadow under the foreigner extended on its own accord in a tridimensional swirl of misty and inky tentacles that began hitting everything while crawling onto every surface; the darkness slapped the nearby faceless away and as it reached small objects it absorb and dissolve them into nothingness to gain mass and advance further; most notably, the discarded foreign armor and the restraints that kept the captive woman strapped to the table were the first obvious targets, yet, when the shadows crawled over her body, the outsider didn't move. With big dead eyes she looked up to the ceiling with an expression lost between rage, angst and disgust; her mind filled with the the same horrors she had endured in the nightmare realm reminded her of the terrible truths of her past in either and both world, except this time she didn't have any will to fight back or go on.

"_What's going on!?"_ -The faceless woman jumped back and grabbed a knife to defend herself.

"_It's madness!"_ \- A man screamed trying to get close, but before any further explanation could be worded he was impaled by a stalagmite of darkness that shot upwards, killing and absorbing him in the act just like it was happening to other faceless cards around.

"_STOP IT, IDIOT! MADNESS WILL KILL US ALL! INCLUDING YOU!_" - The woman screeched at Aria and tried to reach her but a swirl of darkness sprung from the mantle of darkness covering foreigner. The woman barely evaded it.

Aria didn't blink but her lips curled into a wiry smile as she chuckled. She felt like vomiting, her breasts felt incredibly sore, her headache had increased tenfold and her body felt as if it was constipated, bloated and about to faint. Now that the shadows have eliminated her restraints, she massaged her wrists -_"Everyone dies." _

Everyone around began dying as soon as the spikes or the tentacles caught them, not even their clocks survived being devoured by the darkness, although some were managing to defend themselves effectively with weapons like swords or knives, the crazy woman included.

"_Not me, I can't die! Not like any other card! I'm destined for more, like my grandfather!"_ \- The woman looked frantic as she took another huge knife, long enough to be considered a short sword, and slashed at the tentacles coming her way while tripping and dancing between the pikes, cutting her way towards the foreigner. - _"I'll take that clock from you and get a new life for myself! I'll get a new future of power and grandeur!"_

The foreigner wasn't even aware of what was going around or didn't care. She sat up. From above her boobs she saw her advanced pregnant belly bloated as a yoga ball, and promptly turned sideways to vomit.

The faceless woman saw the chance and tried jumping at the witch, but bloated belly or not, Aria Hadron Scherzi was a seasoned mercenary who saw the attack and quickly grabbed onto the table's edge to the twist and use the momentum to toss a round kick a the attacking faceless, hitting the woman aside and forcing her to drop the knife.

For a second dizziness overcame the definitely pregnant foreigner, and while the woman stood back only to jump away from attacking darkness, Aria's eyes caught sight of the gleaming blade in the ground that her attacker had tried using against her. The foreigner extended her hand towards it, and when she found that crouching down was hard on her body's physique, darkness swiftly grabbed the knife for her.

Glassed olive green eyes look at the knife with curiosity, twisting it around before her gaze focused on her abnormal belly that gave her strange kicks from inside out like a worming parasite under her flesh, and without a second of doubt, she raised the knife into a stabbing position.

"_ARIA!" _

Heavy metal doors banged open at the far side of the fish warehouse when Boris Airey, The Cheshire Cat, made his entrance. Automatic pistol ready in his hand, he was splattered with blood and grime from the many faceless cards he had encountered on his way to the deepest hangar like room in the place. Without knowing the exact destination where the foreigner was held, he hadn't been able cut space directly into the room, so instead he had rushed through crates of iced fish, shooting, hitting, and slashing foes in his way, forcing some to tell what they had planned for the foreigner, which only made him rush even more, but now that he was here, things were crazier than anyone could have was swirling in fluid attacks against everything besides the foreigner, shadows lashing around like rags on a windy day or spikes springing from the floor in order to impale the few remaining fleeing faceless. Boris's fur stood up on end. This was similar to the darkness he had seen the Jabberwocky use in that dreadful fight before Aria was lost; yet, but these shadows were coming from Aria's own extended shadow and kept devouring weapons and instruments around to expand and sustain their mass. They moved on their own accord with wicked destructive focus that seemed intelligent in its malice, and in the center of it all was Aria herself, holding a knife and pointing it towards her bloated belly, ready to stab herself and the life she was carrying.

_"ARIA, STOP!_" - Boris's scream went unnoticed or ignored by the abashed and disconcerted foreigner. His clock raced in fright, terrified for her life as his teeth clicked together, glaring at her in firm determination. He wasn't going to let her die; he loved her.

He tried approaching but the darkness repealed him, and out of desperation, he let out a loud yowling mew that caught the outsider's attention and made stop her actions to look his way.

"_Bunsen?_" - The witch, clearly out of it, turned around looking for her familiar but there was no small pink kitty around. Seeing nothing of interest to her she returned her attention towards the knife she held as if trying to remember what she was going to do with it.

The faceless woman, one of the last survivors because of her proximity to the outsider, took the chance to toss a knife straight at Aria's head but the blade was blocked by the shadows; however, the woman use the seconds it took the darkness to block and devour that knife in order to take out a clock from a deep pocket within her clothes. -"_Seems the clock we extracted earlier will be useful after all, hon!~"_\- She knew that she had only one chance of survival. Power. She needed power, of any kind, and she needed it now. -_ "I'll take what I can now and then more later when I get you, dear foreigner!~_"- Twisting the clock's time over herself, she called for a role to be bestowed on her, the most powerful role she could get. She didn't care what role it was as long as it was strong enough to kill the foreigner. That was her last thought before she felt herself burning from the inside out to a monstrous desire to consume the foreigner and her delicious despair, to savoir the outsider's anger, madness and sadness. The woman didn't notice her body deform and expand, nor did she pay attention when feathers began to emerge from her skin, or how her face extended to form the beak of a frumious bird. What she did feel was the terror of the surviving faceless around upon seeing the terrible jub-jub bird.

Boris's eyes widened at the sight of the frumious beast, feeling his ticking stuttering. This bad situation had taken a turn for the worse. He hissed and immediately pulled the trigger of his gun, firing at the Jub-Jub but clearly making no dent in the beast. His ears lowered and he hissed, frustrated. He couldn't injure it with a normal gun!

Quite loosely tongued, dizzy and disconnected, Aria looked at the bird, her mind recognizing it as a frumius beast and making a vague connection to the ones she had seen in the lost country of Spades; yet, the sheer stress of all just made her mind more disconnected from what was happening around. - _"I haven't reformed you into a whole role, birdy. You are still just the basis of a role that cannot coexist with it's holder and just devours it immediately, not? ... you are like Bandy or Jabby were before I meeted them … you are… incomplete._" - She tilted her head, her mind and memories slurring in her words and not making much sense. -"_You want me to make you a whole role? a renewed role too?_"

Meanwhile Boris jockeyed back and forth, trying to get a read on the movements of the darkness and the spikes protruding from the floor but it moved randomly and kept him at bay. The Jub-Jub ignored the feline, instead turning it's bulbous eyes to the foreigner, trying to make a grab for her but the darkness also lashed at it even more wildly, blocking the Jub-Jub's advances as the last of the faceless succumbed to the darkness lashing about, breaking their spines and necks with ease, slashing, impaling, mutilating and decapitating; all while Aria leaned back, breathing hard and unable to move as her belly continued to grow to the point she found herself wailing her discomfort out loud and making the monstrous bird relentless in its attacks.

"_SHIT!_"- Boris crashed against a wall. He got up and tried to jump through the web of darkness, but despite his feline agility and reflexes he was unable to get closer to the screaming foreigner, whose belly kept growing by the second as much as her despair. Boris was as desperate as he was frustrated, his fur crisp and his pupil's mere slits, not only for what he was seeing but because of what he was feeling. Her mana flowed in torrents of madness and he could feel himself absorbing like when she experimented on him. For what she had said, as a holder he naturally did so; but if he was, then the damn jub-jub bird who was threatening 'his' foreigner, the foreigner that he considered his mate and that was possibly about to birth his kitten was too, for what she had said, the frumious beasts were roles too.

"_ARIA!_"- Once more he threw himself forward and once more he was repealed; she didn't react to his desperate voice. Boris needed to take her out of here and fast. If only he could get close … but he couldn't and thus he began meowing loudly. That called her attention, making her look toward him with vacant confusion in her eyes.

"_Bunsen?_" Her expression flickered before hardened as tears streaked down her cheek. Aria shook her head and dropped her fighting stance, her lips twisting into a grimace of a smile. -"_No, not Bunsen..." - S_he dropped herself on the floor and the darkness, her only protection, began receding.

"_The product is almost ready for deliverance" _\- The clear voice of Aria's A.I. spoke from the shadows, referring to Ari's pregnancy state.- "_Once the process of delivery starts, all processing will be focused on life support and assisting instructions." _

Boris recognized that voice and now he understood that the shadows were being controlled by Aria's A.I. , but said shadows were also twisted by the madness… or perhaps the A.I. itself was. He remembered Aria testing those briefly; but since she had her beloved cat to do the chores, she hadn't developed that more.

The Jub-Jub drew closer to the foreigner with each passing second and Boris couldn't take it anymore. He needed power, and if he could absorb that mana he could it. Welcoming the force of her despair, anger despair, disgust, and madness, Boris abandoned the humanoid guise. Dropping his gun to the ground he took out the collar and put it on his own neck to force himself to change; but instead of the cute small cat he had been for weeks, he found himself growing to an enormous size that rivaled the Jub-Jub. His fangs grew sharp all along his jaw and his claws extended so much that they unsheathed; pink and purple fur covered his entire body as the muscles hardened on his terrible feline form. He was The Cheshire Cat and this was the reason he wasn't allowed to take upon his bestial form often. Unlike the rodents he was a predator that could go feral or frumious, and frumious he was. This bird was threatening what his instincts demanded he protected at all cost, and he would rip to shreds any creature that dared mess with predatory creature like himself.

Holding her stomach Aria screamed again, her belly as big as it would go. The darkness became a cushion under her as the Jub-Jub aimed a hit at the outsider, but The Cheshire Cat, now bigger than a car, threw himself against the monstrous bird.

The feline clawed and bit while the bird tried to dig its talons and beak in the other beast's skin. Both creatures were fighting wildly; still, there was a difference between the monsters. While the Jub-Jub was just instincts and anger, Boris was sentient and could use his smarts above his instincts. It was true that the feline's rage reflected the foreigner's madness and despair; he could feel it in his own being feeding this frumius form. All that mana experiments the mercenary witch did on him, now allowed Boris to bombarded by her mana and remain fully sentient and in control of himself; even if at the moment he was a beast formed by anger despair, disgust, madness and all horrible emotional sensations his beloved Aria was suffering.

Boris lunged again, standing between the foreigner and the Jub-Jub bird, slashing with his claws forward and making the bird flap away but not turning back as it's razor sharp talons kept on trying to hit back the cat. Both beasts got and dealt damages, but when the feral Jub-Jub tried to fly to gain an advantage, it crashed with the ceiling of the warehouse. The Cheshire cat smirked his feline smirk as he leapt up to slash the birds middle and pull it down to the ground to sinking his fanged jaws over the bird's neck, maintaining his grip to suffocate the creature while his claws slashed open the feathered beat, spilling its entrails around. Only when he heard a new scream for Aria did he stop. Turning towards her and seeing small puddle of water under her. Her water had broken.

Aria bend over and Boris panicked, approaching but unable to do anything in this form, pacing around her and then licking her face, which put her into a sort of trance. He then head-butted her and she grabbed his whiskers.

"_H__ow the hell were primitive people able to deal with this pain!?"_ \- The heavily pregnant woman screamed, doubling over and losing her grip on the cat's whiskers when the horrible pain of contractions shook her body.

"_It's actually a natural thing, Aria_." - The feline tried to reassure her while looking around and seeing the exit door. He smelled the heavy amount of hormones in the air and knew that he needed to take her out of this place fast.

"_You're not the one having a parasite crawling out of your body by force, you horrible, traitorous.. AAAAHH!" - She couldn't even continue her insults. At this point it was incredible she was conscious._

Boris jumped to the door and connected it to their home, putting all his energy into it and feeling how he was changing form again. With a few jumps he reached Aria just as he resumed adopting his humanoid form, the collar dropping to the floor. He quickly grabbed her in his arms and carried her bridal style while she kicked and tossed among screams of bloody murder and dead threads towards him.

"_You're heavy_"- He grunted, finding funny how unnatural she found the situation but how entirely natural it really was.

"_Just kill me, dammit!"-_ She hit him as best as she could.

"_That can wait till we are home_"- Boris staggered towards the door and crossed right straight to their bedroom at the chateau, where he placed her on the bed. - _"Ok, we're home, now… now..."_\- He was worried sick and had no idea what to do, so he held her hand and an iron grip almost crushed his fingers.

"_Who the hell do you think you are, you..!"_\- Aria was interrupted by a painful contraction that made her hold onto her ex-pet's hand.

"_Imminent delivery detected."-_Aegis, the A.I. of her suit, sounded amused._ -"Now, master. You need to push. My medical commands are limited but I can offer referential assistance." _\- It then began giving appropriate instructions on what to do.

Aria was almost out of it but she trusted her A.I.; after all, it had the records of many libraries of her world, including many medical texts. A furious and frenetic string of curses and profanities left her lips, but with her legs spread she pushed while holding onto Boris's hand.

Boris on his part was all terrified, but he also followed the instructions and helped the baby come out. It wasn't hard because it was smaller than an average human baby, but it's size wasn't the only different feature. To the Cheshire Cat's joy, the newborn possessed kitty ears and a tail. - _"Aria, we have a kitten_!"- Boris had never felt such warmness and joy in his clock. No words could describe what Boris felt when he saw 'his' kitten. But he loved him with all his clock almost as much as he loved... - "_Aria? … __ARIA!"_

Aegis's calm voice sounded happy but urging and bossy.- _"My user just passed out and you need to cut the umbilical cord. Please celebrate later._"- Then the A.I. continued issuing instructions that the new dad followed.

Boris did all he could to take care of his unconscious mate while also cheering that he was the father. The fact that he was a dad slowly setting into his mind, his instincts awakening to a new stance of pride and responsibility that he didn't know he could have and he didn't mind it. He only wished Aria would be as happy as he was when she awakened.

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	7. Cat's Cradle

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**CHAPTER 7: CAT'S CRADLE**

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The sun was shining and birds chirped out of the building, waking up the foreigner and giving her a headache that added to her general pain and discomfort. If that wasn't enough, a pink haired cat boy and role holder was sleeping practically over her with his face between her breasts and hugging her aching body. She was so disoriented and everything was so confusing that it took several moments of her revising her status log and seeing the entry regarding giving birth to a kitten-baby before she remembered everything. Aria promptly grabbed Boris's neck with force between her hands and applied pressure to choke him awake.

_"Morning-!_" - Boris gagged, being shaken back and forth as his eyes slowly began rolling into the back of his head. - _"Did you sleep well? I put you on your favorite pillow besides me." _

"_This is all your fault! You damned furry clockling of a despicable role holder!"_ \- Aria strangled him harder while screaming more insults and have would have continue till she killed him, but a sudden loud and wailing cry that came from a basket placed besides the bed made her stop. - "_What the fuck is that fucking noise!?"_

Boris took the chance to get free from her grasp. Immediately he went to the basket to pick up a small baby with feline ears and tail, and whose fur was of various grey shades with purple stripes. He made the baby stop crying by cradling him in his arms while purring with pure delight and fascination at his kitten; then noticing the silence, he turned to see Aria's bleak but confused glance, and while he was a bit nervous of her reaction, he approached her and extended the baby towards it's mother.

The merc blinked and looked at the baby but made no attempt to grab it. - "_Did I popped this?"_

_"Uh ... Yeah. It's a boy… Ours_." -Boris admitted with a light blush as his tail curled and flipped around. Very slowly he slumped back on the bed.

Aria's face was a porcelain mask, but her eyes changed colors as she activated her implanted lenses to examine this new creature. After the initial visual examination, her face contorted into an expression of utter disgust as she turned towards Boris._\- "How the fuck did you impregnated me!?" -_She spat as if talking about the lowest and dirtiest topic possible.

_"Uh ... because you were a kitty in heat and I'm quite the capable tom-cat?"_ \- He said, blinking in confusion at her response before grinning.- "_Would you like a demonstration?_" - He teased with a cheeky grin.

Aria growled with disgust, but her words were serious on the topic as she addressed herself while pondering it. -_" How did it happened? It shouldn't have, not with all my protections...mmhhh.. Given the characteristics of the product, it definitely happened at that time with the accidental transformation..._"

_"How uh ... how are you feeling?_" - Boris asked, nervously holding the baby that began meowing calling for his mama.

"_Im probably still in shock_" - Said kitten's biological mother grunted and laid back down, crossing her arms over her big and aching breasts while her voice turned monotonous. - _"I theorize that when I got transformed into a feline girl and went into heat, my contraceptives failed because they are designed for humans, and since I was like that for around a couple weeks, the fertilized cell had enough time to go down and settle in the matrix before I changed back. The chance of this was likely incredibly improbable, but it still happened._"

Boris stared at her, smiling still while holding their meowing little cub pawing at his hand. She was too calm ... it freaked him out a bit but he sheepishly continued to smile. At least she wasn't trying to kill him again … yet.- "_It's uh ... it's not so bad, Aria. Right?_"- He asked, blinking nervously while continuing to smile. -_"Don't you want to hold your … our, son?"_

"_It is worse than bad. And no, I don't want to hold it." - _She looked away and around the room to locate her armor neatly settled over a chair, and then down to herself. She was still wearing the horribly tacky pink t-shirt.

"_Hmmm~ alright._" -Boris said with a soft sigh; he knew this wasn't gonna go that easy, but he still insisted.- _"But you should at least try. He's quite soft._" Boris teased, purring against the little bundle of improbable chances. The baby's ears were softer than velvet under his touch.

"_I don't even know how to handle kittens, let alone baby humanoid ones_." - Standing up from the bed she stretched her sore body.

"_C'mon, if he's such an improbable thing then you at least want to examine him, right?_" - Boris extended the baby once more to her and the baby reached out. This time, although Aria rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically, she did pick the baby to examine it. Boris handed her the baby, a little nervous still. -" _… gently, there's only one baby._"

Aria made an mmhmm noise and held the strange creature up and in front of her, moving it around, up and down while her lenses once more changed shades as she used different filters to examine the little giggling and very small baby.- "_Is this size normal?_"

"_Yes because he is a kitten, not a human. He'll grow bigger though_. "- Boris grinned, happy that she had taken an interest. - "_Now get him near you so he can smell his mom._"

A very weirded look was dedicated to the Cheshire cat; she raised her eyebrow and sat on the bed, then very slowly approached the kitten towards herself. As soon as the baby was closer, his small nose moved and he pawed her way, meowing softly while opening and closing his big bright eyes, which were olive green like Aria's.

"_We make cute babies."_ \- Boris purred feeling all fluffy and mushy, nuzzling against Aria's shoulder happily.

Aria shook her head and moved out of the bed, making Boris's head hit the mattress. With a sigh she placed the kitten on the bed, and despite the kitten reaching out for her she stood up again. Her voice's tone wasn't cold, but it undoubtedly sounded indifferent. -"_What now, cat holder?"_

"_Well, we could raise him."_ \- Boris grinned and rolled on his back, taking the baby over him and letting his kitten play with his finger, watching the baby grasp it. He purred in delight, his daddy instincts all high and set already. - _"Would you like to get married or something?"_

Aria stared, her mind had encountered an error while processing this. Then she growled, taking a few steps back, placing her hand over her face and breathing hard. To be honest she was curious about how it was that this little kitten had come out of her, hell, how it even existed, but she wasn't having any of the evident delusion Boris Airey was suffering and she supposed it was a combination of factors like the game and his instincts. Male cats weren't supposed to get daddy high save for lions, right? And the kitten.. She didn't recall seeing many kids or babies in Wonderland, let alone newborn ones, much less new clocks entering the system, and that was something she felt curious about, something to test and research, learn, explain and if needed… modify. But she needed tests and observation, and for that she needed the kitten alive and near. It wasn't as if she wanted the kitten all, no, not all. And as for the Cheshire cat… -_** ("NO") -**_ She growled. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the happy father. -"_ Go away! Don't you get I don't like role ho...?"_

The kitten meowed, interrupting her. Looking up from the big cat holding him and reaching out for his mother.

"_So um ... Can you feed him? He's probably hungry._" -Boris suggested, looking a little too cheeky with his kitty-like smile.

"_F-feed him?" _\- Aria's eyes widened in realization, her face contorted in a look of disgusted before she turned around and walked out of the room.

Boris stood up with the kitten in his arms and followed her to her laboratory, the place where she mixed potions and substances that she used to portray that witch image she had cultivated, and oddly enough, the place where she kept the medicines.-"_Aria, babies need food._"

"_And_ _I need painkillers."_\- Aria grabbed a bottle and took out 2 pills which she swallowed immediately. Then she grabbed a notebook, and leaned on a table to start writing.

"_Aria…"_ \- Boris stared with his ears low and an ache in his clock, feeling that they had taken several steps backs on it all.

"_Go get some formula then." -_She kept her scribing.- _"I am writing down some of my notes from when I was changed into a cat girl. I'm curious how this kitten seems to react to me given the difference in species._" - Looking up she observed the kitten's behavior again, it was making meowing calls. -"_And if you haven't notice, I have no idea how to react at the moment tot his situation or to that creature, and I don't want to..."_

Boris deadpanned.- "_Aria, this 'creature' is our cub."_\- He then tried to lighten the mood by half joking with an easy smile. _-"And don't worry about figuring it out, you could always change yourself into a kitty and let instincts kick in." -_ The image of kitty Aria coming back to his mind and he could see even more likeness into their cute cub.

Aria's eyes widened. She stood up and tossed the notebook on the table.- "_That's it!"_

"_Aha..._" - Boris smiled happily in the background, holding the giggling little kitten into the air while petting it. All of his attention focused onto the little baby as Aria began grabbing ingredients and mixing a potion.

"_Where did I put the diluent_?_ The transforming potion needs a diluent… oh right!"_\- From out of nowhere she took out her vial, the container for the potion of heart that appeared back on her when she required to even if she left it somewhere else. In a 'brilliant' moment of brightness, Aria mixed some of her potion of hearts with the transformation potion, using it as a universal substitute for any component via her will and mana, which she infused in the mix to start the reaction.

Meanwhile the kitten meowed again and began on sucking on Boris's finger.

_" ... Aria, our kitten needs a name."_\- Boris held up the little meowing kitten towards her, and looking up and down the oversized t-shirt he remembered she wasn't wearing anything below. He then added with a cheeky smiled. -_"And a meal. … and me too." _\- He sneakily grinned.

"_Whatever._ "- The foreigner walked towards the cats, ignored Boris's words and the kitten in his hands, and removed a hair of Boris's head to get a target sample of DNA, the final ingredient for the potion.

Without a second thought, she drank the potion and held onto the table while the chance took place. Her ears went up her head and became triangular velvet cat ears; her fur a white, gray and golden striped pattern that adorned the fuzzy tail that extended from her spine and that began moving around; her pupils under the implanted lenses became slits, and her scent changed to that of a feline like Boris's own species.

Boris stared at her while silently cheering as he blushed, remembering the heated activities that made possible the existence of the kitten in his arms. She was a beautiful kitty, and his own instincts began reacting even more to her. In his arms, the kitten seemed to notice a change in his mother's scent and began meowing louder, this time out of hunger.

Aria's feline ears perked and she stopped from taking samples of herself; it only took a few seconds for primal instincts and senses to overwhelm her. In a fast attack she leaped at Boris and ripped her cub from his arms while growling at the male cat. Boris jumped back and got ready to act, but to his relief, she began feeding the hungry baby right then and there.

The male cat happily smiled, ecstatic by his mate's quickness to feed her baby. Feeling all loving and protective of his family he stared at the feeding cub and then focused his own attention in the female's free tit.-_"Can I munch on the other one? I'm hungry too_." -He cheerfully asked while taking a couple steps forward, but when he approached she hissed and scratched him, forcing him to get back. -"_mmhh… maybe later then_?" - He knew that wouldn't be the case for a while because she was feral, and damn, he loved her; but a mommy cat could try to rip the farther apart if he even looked like a threat, so Boris took a few cautious steps back, blinking slowly in a kitty kiss and exposing his throat until he was outside of the room while she growled at him.

As soon as Boris was farther away, Aria's consuming instincts made her retreat with the cub towards the 'nest' of their room and to be a proper protective cat mom.

Boris widely grinned, his chest puffed and he found himself purring. He would have to get a peace offering for her later and of course become an excellent provider. He knew Aria had super strong instincts at the moment and she didn't know how to handle them. The same had happened that time the kitten was conceived, and for now, she and the kitten would depend on him. As for himself, he didn't have any problem with that. He already felt a proud strong kitty dad and it all was natural. Her territory was his home and hunting grounds, and he'll defend it against anyone, especially against other holders, not only was she unable to outfight anyone for the time being, but she was a still a foreigner and a big target, especially because she was touched by madness, and that normally was more than enough to mean a death sentence for an outsider. But for the moment, he might as well go get that peace offering and hope she let him get close later on, maybe even let him taste some milk too.

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	8. In The End

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text

_-"Dialogue"_-

**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

**This is a time skip: ****MWMWMWMWMWWMWMWMWMWMMWMWMW**

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**CHAPTER 8: IN THE END**

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One fine morning, birds outside the window were chirping so loud and annoyingly that Aria woke up, for a while she felt dizzy and confused. She was resting on her bed sideways and she could feel her tail slowly curling at the tip and uncurling in a continuous motion. Her feline ears flickered and the world's sounds were as clear to her as the scents around even if their meaning hinted stuff that she couldn't comprehend at the moment.

At her side was a little spot of warmness, and looking down she found the baby kitten now bigger and sleeping with a happy purr. The increase in size was an indication of the time that had passed; her mind battling instincts as she moved her gaze to stare blankly at empty space to ponder what the hell had happened to her existence.

Sudden ruckus from the birds outside accompanied by growls made Aria look at the window; some moments later Boris came in through said window with a little pigeon in his jaws and peeked inside the room, twisting his tail back and forth happily before crawling inside.

"_Take this furry creature from my side and go away."_\- Aria growled very softly while her tail swung dangerously from side to side. Her claws extended and dug into the bedsheets as her chest moved up and down when her breathing began increasing its pace while growl started to come out of her throat.

Boris dropped the pigeon, surprised. - _"You're back? All the way?"-_ He had been busy hunting for a new peace offering for her to let him get near. In his imagination he had already pictured when he would bring living preys to teach their kiddo to learn how to hunt but he hadn't imagined her to come back to her senses so fast.

Aria growled, getting far more than angry by the second, the indignation of this all making her start to go feral and not in a nice way.- "_I told you to leave me alone._" - She hissed, her pupils became slits as her fur went on edge. Just when she was getting on a crouching position to attack him, the kitten woke up and began crying, making her look down with disgust and rage before lifting her clawed hand to strike.

_"Whoa, Aria-!"_ -Boris jumped forward and smashed into her, throwing her out of the bed and wrestling her to the floor while she tried to scratch slice, kick or bite him but since she was too angry and feral to fight with normal tactical training, Boris managed to easily push her out of the room before he got on top to bite firmly on her nape while forcing her to lay on her side, growling every so often as he showed his dominance until her breath slowed down and she stopped thrashing around.-_ "Are you calm now?"_\- Boris asked, his voice muffled against her skin and fur.

Aria growled, still breathing hard and completely tensed up, but after a while she finally remained unmoving.

Instead of letting her go, Boris accommodated over her back and hugged her tightly, his tail flickering and touching her's. - _"Everything is alright, Aria._" - He began licking her nape and her ears while his purrs reverberated on her body, but her tension was as tangible as audible was her renewed growlings.

"_How can it be alright!?_"- She began thrashing again and he pressed his weight on her until she once more stopped her movement. Her body burned in confusion and anger, and her shadows began moving on its own under her, but Boris didn't seem to mind.- "_How long had I been feral?"_

"_Umm…. Around 80 time changes"_\- Boris nuzzled his chin over her head- "_You've been quite the whole kitty, but no worries, I've been taking care of all."_

"_Almost a month!?"_\- She tensed more but she couldn't shove him off.

"_Yeah?"_ \- He continued the nuzzling, noticing it was having some effect.

"_FUCK!_"- Aria began twisting trying to get free.

"_That would actually serve. You've been getting more adrift…" - Boris held on tight as she tried to escape. -"Woah, calm down!"_

Aria hissed and tried to roll in another direction but he clung to her and rolled with her, ending once more in the same position with him on top.

"_Just listen, please, Aria!_" -He increased his nuzzling and began rubbing his body over her.- "_Calm, kitty."_

Aria growled but settled again, his actions and position over her eased her as much as caused her to get an expectant reaction of some primal type. -_ "Speak."_

Boris left out a breath of relief. -_ "You've been quite protective of our kitten and have not let me get near much … well, not until I get you some peace offering first."_\- He let out an awkward hint of a laugh before continuing with a more serious tone.- "_Aria… foreigners are like balloons..."_

Her voice became a monotone digitized sound chiller than winter.- _"You're calling me fat?_"

"_No_!"- Sensing the danger, the Chesire cat quickly continued.- "Your own otherworld nature pulls you up and away, so you need some kind of string to keep you grounded here in this world. That's something holders do better than anything else, right?" - He knew it was against the rules to tell but she already knew or suspected it._-"So … go ahead and vent, that's fine. I'll be right here whenever you need to. Let me be that string for you"_

"_Let me guess how you plan to do it."- _Her voice held certain disdain, but she stopped and considered it knowing it was true. Due to her deal with this world she wouldn't be able to go back to her world, but that didn't mean her mind wouldn't go adrift, and her own experiences had invited the madness too.- "_Because I bet you oh so unselfishly are willing to help, no?_"- Her words wouldn't change the reality. She wasn't that strong mentally, and until she had 'settled' her mind would succumb to the madness or to instincts again. As much as she hated it, she knew she needed it.

The male of the species pressed himself against her, moving slowly sinuously an blushing all too eager to ease her. -_" I promise things will feel better afterwards and then we can speak out and plan or plot or whatever you want."._ -His hand began caressing her shoulder before it went under her shirt_ .-"You need to get out the madness and frustration; I can help you with that, just let me._" -Boris promised with a kitty grin, staring at her ears before licking them, imagining briefly about his fanciful life with her from now on, but despite his own eager desires, he understood her. She needed to vent out frustration and instincts before anything else. - "_Use Me. Let me help you ease out of your instincts."_

"_I hate you and I hate this"_ \- Aria said more to not appear to friendly or eager.-"_I hate how low I fell too"_. - Placing her hands on the floor, then took a deep breath before raising her rump.

Boris didn't comment. Her action was all the invitation he needed.

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Some time later at the kitchen they were done. However, the tension hadn't subsided all that much.

"_Are you feeling better, Aria?_"- Boris ventured, all happy and content while opening up a bottle of water, watching her smoke an habano cigar. For peace's sake he remained quiet about how unhealthy that was. Instead, he grinned.- "_Do you forgive me and accept me back, yet?"_

Aria seemed calmer, like the eye of a hurricane; and after a minute of narrowed eyes and silence she took another pull of her burning cigar. Next her voice came out sounding robotic; she was possibly too tired, mentally and physically to even sound angry. -_"I hate this and I hate all holders in general and you in particular. Well, if I biologically could hate I certainly would._"

_"And I love you regardless."_ \- Not fazed, Boris happily smiled, his tail swaying slowly in a merry swing. -_ "I'm here for you. I'll help you whenever you need it and love you unconditionally. So it doesn't matter if I am a role holder, right? I'm still your kitty cat._"

She growled and once more narrowed her eyes, but her fists could barely remain closed. - _"I won't forget and will never be stupid enough to trust any holder_."- She hissed with her kitty ears low in a sad way, her tail lashing behind her. She gave a final pull to her cigar and exhaled the smoke through her nostril in his direction while tossing the burning end of the cigar away for it to be devoured by shadows that protruded from the floor.

_"But you can trust me, Aria."_ \- Boris said, his ears turning down a bit. Her coldness was to be expected but it still certainly hurt.

"_Oh yeah?"_ \- She growled again, her pupils getting more slitted and nails extending like the claws they were now that she was a feline.- _"Like when you sent me in a suicide mission? __When you and everyone went to hunt me down to Diamond? When I fought the Jabberwock? When I sold myself to this world to fix its game and the frumious roles? Or when you lived under me for weeks faking to be a mere cute pet cat?"_ \- Her eyes watered; she looked almost about to cry.- _"Do you know how primitive and defiled I feel? __How much it took for me to feel fuckign anything at all! How much I am disgusted at myself for allowing all this to happen?"_

Boris remained quiet, too surprised she was so angry and resentful ... or rather he realized she was actually broken beyond repair, and he was partially responsible for that. He leaned forward but stopped upon her angry gaze thinking better of it and rather tried to change the topic.- "_mmhhh… how long are you going to be a kitty again?_"

Aria huffed while looking aside and down towards her tail, then grabbed the tip to examine it.- "_The change is permanent." - _She released her tail and next examined her clawed hand in front of her face, her eyes changing to a blue glow_.- __"I made a stupid mistake. __I used the potion of hearts as a substitute for the diluent, and I forgot that as a foreigner I'm immune to mana, also it's been weeks and thus the components are completely metabolized by now, not to mention that since I used a friggin potion of hearts, no other substance will be able to overwhelm it and it'd be a waste and a risk to even try to use it again when it refills."_

"_I can help you out now._" - Boris internally cheered in excitement, his tail flicking back and forth while he tried to make his expression sullen, but his stupidly wide grin was easy to decipher.-_"Being a cat is awesome!"_

"_Awesome or dull I don't care. It merely is and I don't need help, much less the 'help' of a holder. Didn't you already fuck me enough?_"- Aria grumped, her chest moving up and down slightly faster in angry agitation that soon slowed down. Her feline ears lowered sideways and then she looked at the male cat in the eyes. -_"However... I'm willing to tolerate you when the next inevitable heat comes." _\- She did her best to keep an stony expression.-_"I know I will enter in heat at some point and the same problems than last time will arise, so you are free to come visit while the heat lasts."_

Boris ears went up and pointing forward but his tail curled as his shoulders dropped.- "_I want you more than just for your heats, Aria_." - However inviting that welcoming for heat time sounded, the male feline took it for what it really was.

"_I'm not and have never been your average gullible foreigner, have I?_" - Aria's look of cold rage and disdain was plain. - "_Trick me once, shame on you, trick me twice, shame on me. My opinion is more than set through experience and I'd be a fool if I fall for trusting a holder ever again. "- _Her expression dropped into a tired glance.

"_C'mon, I'm a very trustworthy guy. I just couldn't tell you who I was when I trapped in my kitty form_"- Boris scratched the back of his head; he wasn't sorry at all for having spend that wonderful time with her.

With a business tone, Aria disregarded his comment. She had better things to do. -"_Can you open a door to the warehouse where shit happened? I want to examine the place."_

The Cheshire cat sighed. The topic was closed. - "_I already checked. No one survived and I closed off space to get there because I knew you'd like to check it out"_ \- In truth he simply had cut off the space to ensure no one else followed after him when he got there to rescue her, and then he had simply forgotten about it.

"_Good, then I'll have a chance to examine whatever remains._"- Aria placed her hands on her hips, then she turned around toward a broom closet. -"_Keep it open so I can come and go."_

A snap of his fingers signaled he had connected the places._-"Can I go with you? Although there isn't much left; I already brought back the spoils" -_ He pointed towards a broken painting hanging on a wall, the portrait of the witch and her familiar, the same one he had gotten from that tomb.- _"We look good in that portait, don't we?"_

Aria examined the portrait, the frame was broken and the painting slashed. She removed it from the wall and tossed it to him. - "_Take it with you on your way out of my property._" - Without looking back, she stepped through the portal in the closet as darkness crawled over her body to form her full armor on her way towards the warehouse.

The image of the portrait looked back at Boris as he let out a pathetic meow. On the door to the bathroom he opened a one-time portal towards downtown. He wasn't going to give up, but he needed at least a really big peace offering, he also needed to pay Nightmare a visit.

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After he was done with his business in town, Boris headed back to the witch's chateau, hopping his gift would be enough. Of course he hadn't the time to search for the most exclusive and legendary item as a peace offering but after he spoke with Nightmare he had con the teen version of the demon into paying for a not so little supply of the present he had chosen for the foreigner.

He crossed right into the kitchen where he connected a portal from a pantry to the storage that held the gift and that he had previously cut off from space, then he grabbed a box with samples and went looking for Aria. He found her in the lab revising some test tubes. Along the walls of the laboratory were many new 'samples', including parts of the Jub-Jub bird like feathers of the frumious bird, which now that he realized, he had totally forgotten about. He supposed the freezer place had kept the body from rotting but what he had no idea was how it was possible that the body had not dissolved into darkness yet. It was almost a given that Aria was investigating that and would find a theory soon, for that and for anything she had found there. He had no doubt she had already pillaged the place.

Approaching with steps loud enough to announce his presence, Boris held up the box of various types of canned cat food in his arms. -_"Tada~_!"- He grinned, holding up the peace offering. - _"I know you like the beef one but I got you a bunch of flavors_. _Have you eaten yet?_"

"_What are you doing back here?_" - Aria turned and stopped her next nasty comment when her eyes caught sight of the box of canned kitty food that he placed over a table. She took a step forward to see it was the brand she had come to like at his apartment during that time.- _"Yes, I was actually hungry. __Nothing more. I haven't eaten since who knows when." _ \- Grabbing a can she opened it and began eating.

"_You've been eating all the preys I've brought_"- Boris puffed his chest proudly at his great hunting skills. -_ "I also sort of got you a few years supply of the canned food you like, this one is just a sample. There's a whole storage room of it that I can connect to a pantry in the kitchen if you take me back. … __Please?_"- He let the idea sink for her.

"_A few years supply, huh?" - _Just when Aria finished the can of food and before she responded, some crying mewls interrupted them.

Boris immediately began looking around the room curiously. - _" ... __Aria, where's the kitten?" _

"_I don't know. Where you left him?_"- She turned around to her equipment once more and adjusted a microscope but glanced at the other cans of food; all while her tail moved anxiously at the noises the kitten made somewhere.-_"I thought you'd take him with you. __I frankly didn't expect you to dare come back here."_

_"I left him here with you. And of course I'd come back, I'll always come back for you, kitty."_\- Boris kept looking around in confusion.-_"You really weren't watching him..."_\- Boris sighed with a shrug.- "_You know, you should pay more attention to your kitten." _

"_You can take him with you. I'll pay a pension or something"_\- Aria waved off, her instincts almost surfacing again.

Boris approached her. She turned around to face him and any possible attack but he instead bumped noses with her, slowly closing his eyes while she remained still. With a quick playful lick to her nose he pulled back. - _"You don't need to pay a pension because I'll be here to take care of the both of you and the territory._"- With a cheeky grin he turned around and headed to the room.

Aria followed after him.- "_What makes you think I'll let you stay, holder?"_

He grinned while looking at her over his shoulder - _"Easy, I am Boris Airey, The Cheshire Cat. But I'm also the 'Electric witch's familiar', Aria Hadron Scherzi's lover and mate, father of her kitten and if she lets me or wants to, even husband. I'm the one who will keep every threat away from her territory. And c'mon, you need someone to do chores around here or someone to deal will the rest of those 'oh so terrible' role holders every so often. More so when heat comes over, no? I'll be a useful kitty_"- He grinned and posed, now playing the 'keep me because I'm useful' card.- _"Plus I can help out with our kitten and with your experiments."_

Aria blinked, shook her head and then grumbled. Once they were both in the room she saw him pick up the kitten and calm the baby out, softly rocking the cub in his arms. The Cheshire cat had a dreamy expression on his face as he cradled the little feline boy. Aria didn't understand it. Her instincts were pulling at her to accept this, it was even logical, but she wasn't sure it was rational. Role holders were nasty trouble … although dealing with just one might be better than having to deal with them all. She closed her eyes, but the needy meowing of the kitten prevented her from thinking clearly.- "_Can't you shut him up?" _

Boris approached with the baby reaching for her- "_He is just hungry Aria, if you feed him I promise he'll calm down and then you can go back to the lab and think things and stuff while I take care of him._"

Aria crossed her arms with a stone face. - "_Why do you really want to stay here? Don't you understand that I will never love you? That I would only be using you because you are useful or to experiment on?"_

Boris placed the kitten in her arms without warning and then gave her a quick peck kiss on the cheek. The baby immediately began looking for his mama's milk source. _"Aria, you're the one who doesn't understand that I do love you; and that's why you need to go and think things over because you'll reason how useful I can be."_

"_Ughh…"- _She let out a groan but pulled down her blouse so the kitten could feed. -_ "I'm only doing this to shut the little fluff and because I was getting a bit swollen._"

"_I can help you with the other one… meow!_"

Before he could get to the milky source, he received was a pull on his tail by her shadow; yet, when the kitten was full and wouldn't eat more, Aria accepted Boris offer because her other breast was still full and uncomfortably swollen. However, she kept a grip on his tail all the time just as a safe measure, and once it was done and all milk had been taken out from her, she left the kitten with Boris and went back to her lab to think things through, remaining there for several hours until she came back a couple time changes later.

Boris, who had been laying on the bed and playing with the kitten, immediately incorporated when she approached. Walking at her side was a creature the size and basic form of a fox made out of shadows.

"_Do you really want to stay here?"-_ Aria stood in front of the bed and presented him a collar identical to the one that had trapped his form. It was possibly the same one. -_"For all you said you serve for, Aegis here can do that" - The creature at her side nodded and then melted on the floor and into her shadow, which then crawled over her skin to form a new attire that seemed like a casual version of her armored suit._

"_You want me as a cat?" _\- He dropped his ears fill with sorrow at her choice. -"_So you decided that I can only stay if I get trapped in my kitty form?"_

"_I may be able to set Aegis to do all that, but you are expendable._" - Aria's tone was calm, yet her ears were down and unsure. - "_This collar is different now. I modified it into a pseudo-relic. It should allow you to change form at will, your will or mine, but if you get away from my mana for too long it will lose that power and will trap you again. Also it binds you. If you put it on you won't be able to take it off. Not even Nightmare will be able to remove it without killing you_."

"_That means that it I put it on I'm officially your kitty and you are going to keep me forever, right?"_ \- Boris didn't dare smile yet.

"_I will keep posing as a witch, and a witch needs a familiar. That's a good cover for my research and mercenary activities. All technology is like magic for those who don't understand it." _-Aria's tail flickered. She twisted her lips.- "_Also this place needs to be upkeep and the kitten needs a nanny_"- She prepared to see him turn this down. -_"__I'll let you do __whatever you want as long as you don't get in my way. So it's your choice if you want to not put on that collar and go aw..."_

_"Of course!_" - Boris grinned, grabbing the collar from her hands and putting it on right away before pulling her to the bed into a tight embrace and purr in blissful happiness.

"_Y-you did put it on!?" -_ She started at him mouth open in surprise.

"_After all I told you, you thought I wouldn't?_" - In excitement he bit lightly her on her ear as she squirmed in his grasp. He felt super happy and needy, perhaps enough to try this change form into his cuddly cat form and then roll around in her underwear drawer again. - _"As my owner, you have to take care of me even when I'm rutting_" - He purred and rubbed his cheek on her. - _"And of course I'll bring plenty of peace offerings too._"

"_I have no reason to trust your words do I?" _\- Aria kept on squirming, but she also began leaning against him as his purring reverberated in her, making her angry with herself at letting him near however convenient his presence around was. Slapping his hands away, she once more tried and failed to get free, not because she couldn't hit him hard enough, but because she didn't want to really - _"Let me go or I' experiment with you!"_

Boris tightened his grip and got on top- "_Then experiment with me again, Aria_"- He purred with a really crazy expression and dilated pupils on his face, his chest moving up and down.- _"Tasting the frumious beast was … amazing. __The power and the instinctual drive were so strong it overtook me. I uh, tasted the other side of mana, the one from your horror, dread and despair … madness._"- He trailed off, almost shaking in his excitement, holding her tighter.-_ "But … it is not as delicious as your happiness and passion, kitty_." -He panted before bringing her into a deep kiss, getting excited just thinking about it. Since she had just given him Blanche card for staying, he was going to abuse those permits and power. Secretly he knew that they wouldn't necessarily be together again as when she had that first heat or when he was trapped in his own kitty form, but still he'll find ways to cuddle, groom and sleep together, they were mates, so it was only natural.

Aria place her hands over his chest and dug her claws while pushing him away but he just moaned and didn't pull off. She then merely gave up and conceded on the kiss, taking the chance to experiment, remembering her horrible experiences and them willing that other mana onto him. Her eyes shone a purple glint as her optic lenses examined him.

He moaned again and finally pulled away from the kiss, panting and excited.

Aria incorporated, eyeing him like some sort of strange creature.- "_Only frumious beasts are supposed to be able to absorb the energy from all 'bad feelings' of foreigners. I don't remember altering you for that."_

"_I'm the Cheshire Cat, Aria. I'm not a silly prey like the rodents. I...WE are predators, we are the frumious beasts that choose not to be so, originally anyways._" - He stretched before resting his head over her lap, looking at her with a silly grin. -"_So experiment with me if you want. I consider you my mate and your territory is my hunting grounds, so I'll always be around for either mana you create._"

"_That's interesting… the frumious thing. Not you staying around_"- She let out a big dramatic sight and tried moving his head from her lap but he was firm, so she merely lay down and conceded.-_"I can't get rid of you now, can I?_"

"_Nope._" - Boris smiled brightly and then join her on the bed for spooning, enjoying cuddling against her with an arm over her waist and his other hand petting the purring cub that have moved to lay against his mom. Boris took the chance presented by the position to groom her lovingly, position that was convenient too for biting her nape if needed. Yet, although she allowed him to deal affectionate attentions, she wasn't cuddling back or showing affection of any kind to he or the cub, so he opted for starting a new conversation. -_ "So… how did you made this collar?_"

"_I used the clock from the kitten that never was, the one that the crazy woman used to transform herself into the Jub-Jub bird." -_ Aria eyed said collar.

Boris hesitated, already feeling that his clock would hurt but he needed to know.-_"What kitten that never was? What do you mean? __Our cub is here."_

"_The other one."_ -Aria coldly clarified, her words factly, cold and quite disdaining.- "_There were going to be 2 kittens, they used a relic for removing the clock of the first one when it was early in its development. Since the clock wasn't powerful enough for what they wanted they decided to let the other clock grow more_."- There was not a shred maternal affection in her words but her ears dropped and she leaned back on Boris while curling around the kitten that happily rested against it's mom. This disgusted her and thus she rolled over Boris to get a few steps away from the bed and from them. - _"That's the power of a stolen heart in this world. That's partly why you holders are so intent on mating with a foreigner, this world wants those babies because then it steals the quantum possibilities of the kid's futures by replacing their hearts with clocks. Stronger clocks due to the energy but clocks all the same."- _She said viciously.

_"I'm so glad you two were alright."- _Boris genuinely said while picking up the cub. She had survived and so had one kitten; that was more than enough, especially because as a foreigner she was the one who couldn't be replaced.

"_Oh yeah, I forgot life and lives mean shit nothing to any of you._" - She went to her underwear drawer and her nose picked on Boris scent there, she made a gesture and took a new clean set.- "_But neither does it matter to me. All is done, past, dead or gone."_\- She rolled her dental floss thong around her index finger.-"_ I guess I'll experiment some more with what I have learn and then with that knowledge…" _-She chuckled to herself and something about her finally crumbled, suddenly everything was so bleak that it was all clear.- "_Well, I can't tell a holder my plans, can I?_"

Boris's tail flipped back and forth in thought, deeply engrossed in his own mind but looking at her disconnected maddened smile and semi vacant eyes, yet he was thinking on this 'knowledge she had gained'. - (_**"The Jub-Jub formed because of a newly formed clock. She wouldn't try to use that knowledge in her experiments, would she?"**_)- A cold shiver crawled down his spine. -_** ("That's very against the rules ... however …")**_ \- He smiled back. If that was her choice, then he could help her with her by 'seeding' her experiments if she wanted any new clocks to experiment on. -"_Do you plan to experiment with clocks?"_

"_It's not as if lives matter in this world. I could go on and let my shadow devour all clocks one by one until there's nothing left" - _She waved her hand offhandedly as if it was she had said or the reality that she was actually capable of it wasn't a big deal.

"Yeah, you could, but_ new lives can be fun too and have more possibilities, like our kitten here… he still needs a name you know?"_\- Taking the chance he grabbed the baby and went up to Aria.-_"Meow for him._"- Boris did a meowing call in demonstration and the kitten meowed back. -_"Just imitate that call"_

The female feline in the room deadpanned with no intention of meowing at all. The male then lifted the kitten up and down for an entire minute until it was clear she wouldn't do anything.

"_Mmhhh… at least sniff him and recall his scent?_"- Boris ears lowered and his tail curled. There was something else he needed to tell her.- _"He is not going to stay with us for long, you know?_"

Barely raising an eyebrow, Aria gauged his words while penetrating him with her cold gaze.-_"What does that means? I am not on knowledge about family dynamics in this world, much less for cats of this breed"_

The Cheshire cat's tail nervously flipped back and forth, staring at her as he found himself forming the words in his mouth.- "_Aria … um … __Nightmare told me that the kitten would have to be sent to another timeline or country._" -Boris hesitantly said, unsure how she would take it.- _"Our kitten is a Cheshire cat, and he can't exist in a timeline where a Cheshire cat already exists. You're still a foreigner though so uh … yeah_." -He frowned and looked at his son before kissing the kitten's forehead. _-"I don't know when that'll be. Nightmare said he'd give us some extra time though."_

"_Knowing Nightmare that could be anything from when the kitten is reared or in a few years. But I see the basis for this. I doubt it's one the demon's empty lies"_\- Aria remained looking calm and uncaring, but her ears got all low as she picked the kitten to sniffed him, and when the baby meowed for her she meowed back before looking back at Boris in the eyes.- _"So enjoy your kitten, Boris Airey. __Because there's no way of knowing if I'll even get alive to the next heat… or would you like me getting killed or kidnapped again so you can brag of knocking the foreigner while he was around?"_

_"I'm just happy that you're alright._" - Didn't she understand that he wasn't an enemy, that no one wanted her dead, that she had a place in this world? Boris kept a serene smile, more happy that she had meowed for the cub than listening to whatever she had said.

"_Alright? You think I'm fucking all right?"_ \- Aria couldn't manage an angered expression, it would be a pointless waste of energy anyways, so she spoke quite calm. -_"I'm not, holder. I'm trapped in an endless existential nightmare, but once I deem my experiments done, one day I will simply go to a certain mausoleum that is a waiting my arrival and I won't be coming back. I also won't be as nice as to kill you before that._"

_"W-Wait, what? Why would you want to die? There aren't any replacements for you."_ -Boris said, suddenly quite panicky about what she had meant.

"_Why would I want to live at all?_"- She shrugged and passed him the kitten. - "_I should have died years ago in my world anyways and any proper deaths have already been stolen from me here, so it doesn't matter. _"- She grabbed an open package of cigarettes and an ashtray from a side table and headed towards the bathroom. -" _You know? I wouldn't have cared if those faceless killed me, but they did something worse, they forced me to live and bring forth life. I would so much have preferred to die"_

"_But this is a new world, you know? Why not make something here if you didn't want to in your other world?_"- Boris really didn't knew what to say, it have come crashing over him the realization of how messed up it was. How disturbed and broken she had become, but he was determined to at least make her enjoy life again although he doubted there was even a chance to succeed in that. In any case, he was a selfish envious cat and he was not giving her up.

"_I already did, and it doesn't matter." - _She entered the bathroom and closed door behind her. A click signaled she had locked herself.

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	9. EPILOGUE

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text

_-"Dialogue"_-

**_("Inner thinking"_****)**

**This is a time skip: ****MWMWMWMWMWWMWMWMWMWMMWMWMW**

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**/ EPILOGUE /**

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Some time had passed and things hadn't improved but at least they hadn't gotten worse. The witch and her familiar still lived into that isolated chateau that she had made into a fortress.

Aria had remained cautious, and just as she had said she had used him as a familiar, house maid, bodyguard, butler, and test subject while letting him live with her. She had keep on posing as a witch and doing mercenary mission that she argued served as exercise. But that was it, their relation hadn't become the same nor had it progressed. Boris knew that although he was her lover and mate he would never be her husband; although he was her familiar she would never trust him completely, and although he would do everything he could, he would never truly win her game; but somehow he was quite alright with that. Just being close to her made him considerably happy, and the further experimentation she had done on him to improve how he could suck on her energy, both nice and bad, also made things incredibly better for himself.

"Now if she only smiled again…" -He often thought.

She never recovered from whatever mental thing had been broken in that fish warehouse; if anything she was almost given up on everything but her experiment and research, even today, the day their kitten had gone away, she had remained home bunkered in her lab. But he knew that she at least felt something because she had been a relatively dutiful mom for their kitten when it came to feeding, and he still hoped to make her smile again for real.

When Boris came back, he believed she was off to visit her tomb again, something she did quite often as of late. He had learned she could open a portal herself to that place, and he had somehow convinced her to give him express permission to reach that place. That mausoleum was eerie and strange. It was cut off from timelines, and the permission he had received to visit it was total, so he speculated that such was the reason why he had been able to reach it in the first place when he had been looking for her a life ago.

Entering further and already knowing his way around, Boris went straight to the central burial chamber. Each time he came he worried she would not come back, he had even taken up their portrait there to remind her that there was someone waiting for her. However, she had tossed into a storage room, the one where he had found it originally along the collar, which only added to his distress because now he suspected that the start of all this had been the future and not the past. Luckily, the stone coffin carved with images of her battles was still empty, and with a sigh of relief, he went back.

After checking the lab and the kitchen he decided check on the bedroom. To his clock's relief she was here, resting over the bed, probably after a kitty nap, and looking as dead as she could while still living, and he knew that maybe it wouldn't be that long before she did tire out. When that time came he would likely get trapped into his kitty form again and he would have to choose between staying here and getting killed, or follow her and disintegrate into nothingness where not even his clock would remain. Remembering how he had found the collar in the first place, he already knew what he would choose.

"Hey, there. Mind petting me some?"- When he approached he felt a nice warmness coming from the collar on his neck. Maybe the collar bind him to her, but she probably didn't realized that it also connected her to him, and he firmly believed that such connection was so important that it had drawn him across countries to her when joker threw him through the mirror lake. He had been destined to end up in her arms since the beginning, and that was more than enough to make him purr.

With delightful abandon he crawled on the bed and began pestering her, meowing loudly, rubbing himself on her and even playing with her braid.

"Why are you so needy now?" - She grunted, doing her best to ignore him but she grabbed his tail to play with it.

"Our kitten went away today, so of course I'm needy and so are you." - He kissed her cheek expecting her to kiss him back lovingly, but as always she didn't kissed him on the lips like he'd like her to do.

"I need rest… maybe permanent." - Aria let go of his tail and turned to give him her back.

"Nope, you need snuggling, luvs and cuddles." - Boris soon spooned and cuddled, smiling and purring. At least he was sure of one thing. Until that final moment came, he would make and take the best out of al. Meanwhile, perhaps his dear witch would decide life with her familiar was good enough to hold onto one more day every single day. Some time had passed and things hadn't improved but at least they hadn't gotten worse. The witch and her familiar still lived into that isolated chateau that she had made into a fortress.

Aria had remained cautious, and just as she had said she had used him as a familiar, house maid, bodyguard, butler, and test subject while letting him live with her. She had keep on posing as a witch and doing mercenary mission that she argued served as exercise. But that was it, their relation hadn't become the same nor had it progressed. Boris knew that although he was her lover and mate he would never be her husband; although he was her familiar she would never trust him completely, and although he would do everything he could, he would never truly win her game; but somehow he was quite alright with that. Just being close to her made him considerably happy, and the further experimentation she had done on him to improve how he could suck on her energy, both nice and bad, also made things incredibly better for himself.

"_Now if she only smiled again…" _-He often thought.

She never recovered from whatever mental thing had been broken in that fish warehouse; if anything she was almost given up on everything but her experiment and research, even today, the day their kitten had gone away, she had remained home bunkered in her lab. But he knew that she at least felt something because she had been a relatively dutiful mom for their kitten when it came to feeding, and he still hoped to make her smile again for real.

When Boris came back, he believed she was off to visit her tomb again, something she did quite often as of late. He had learned she could open a portal herself to that place, and he had somehow convinced her to give him express permission to reach that place. That mausoleum was eerie and strange. It was cut off from timelines, and the permission he had received to visit it was total, so he speculated that such was the reason why he had been able to reach it in the first place when he had been looking for her a life ago.

Entering further and already knowing his way around, Boris went straight to the central burial chamber. Each time he came he worried she would not come back, he had even taken up their portrait there to remind her that there was someone waiting for her. However, she had tossed into a storage room, the one where he had found it originally along the collar, which only added to his distress because now he suspected that the start of all this had been the future and not the past. Luckily, the stone coffin carved with images of her battles was still empty, and with a sigh of relief, he went back.

After checking the lab and the kitchen he decided check on the bedroom. To his clock's relief she was here, resting over the bed, probably after a kitty nap, and looking as dead as she could while still living, and he knew that maybe it wouldn't be that long before she did tire out. When that time came he would likely get trapped into his kitty form again and he would have to choose between staying here and getting killed, or follow her and disintegrate into nothingness where not even his clock would remain. Remembering how he had found the collar in the first place, he already knew what he would choose.

"_Hey, there. Mind petting me some?_"- When he approached he felt a nice warmness coming from the collar on his neck. Maybe the collar binded him to her, but she probably didn't realized that it also connected her to him, and he firmly believed that such connection was so important that it had drawn him across countries to her when joker threw him through the mirror lake. He had been destined to end up in her arms since the beginning, and that was more than enough to made him purr.

With delightful abandon he crawled on the bed and began pestering her, meowing loudly, rubbing himself on her and even playing with her braid.

"_Why are you so needy now?_" - She grunted, doing her best to ignore him but she grabbed his tail to play with it.

"_Our kitten went away today, so of course I'm needy and so are you."_ \- He kissed her cheek expecting her to kiss him back lovingly, but as always she didn't return the affection like he'd like her to do.

"_I need rest… maybe permanent._" - Aria let go of his tail and turned to give him her back.

_"Nope, you need snuggling, luvs and cuddles."_ \- Boris soon spooned and cuddled, smiling and purring. At least he was sure of one thing. Until that final moment came, he would make and take the best out of al. Meanwhile, perhaps his dear witch would decide life with her familiar was good enough to hold onto one more day every single day.

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**Yes, thats the ending. Was it too bittersome? That's as sweet as it could go after what happened to her I think. Oh well. Did you liked it? **

**I think that maybe I made the story too short to make it meaningfull. What do you think? what could I have done to make it better?**

**I would appreciate every and all comments, no matter how brutal they are. I'll take the flames and sugegstions or critics. Also, if anyone wants an M-shot just ask for it in a review.  
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